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Welcome
to the mind-boggling world of extremophiles -
"Lovers of extreme", mostly micro organisms,
which survive and thrive in the extremely
hostile conditions. Till some time back,
scientists believed that life cannot exist in
such extreme conditions. Darwin explained that
life on earth began in a "warm little pond" on
the surface. He was right till the scientists
met "thermophiles" in one of the hot springs.
"Hello, Professor! Don't you think I am hot?"
Their current guess is, LUCA (Last Universal
Common Ancestor) originated from below the
surface, from hot volcanic vents or scalding
sub-ocean geysers, when there was no oxygen
atmosphere.
Think of an extreme and there is an extremophile
kicking in. Psychrophiles in below-freezing
cold, acidophiles and alkaliphiles at very
low/high pH, halophiles in high salinity.
Extreme oxygen tension, pressure, weight,
chemical concentration, gravity and even
radiation. And mind you, their love for
different extremities is not mutually exclusive.
Radiodurans can withstand exposure to radiation
levels up to 1.5 million rads (500 rads is
lethal to humans). "Did I hear something,
honey?" "Oh, someone just dropped a nuclear
bomb, dear." It can repair its DNA within its
tiny cell walls. This skill of radiodurans can
be used for bioremediation (to metabolize
radioactive waste into harmless substance) or in
cancer therapy.
Halophiles are extremely small, so much so that
it would take more than half a million of them
to cover the surface of a pinhead. Guess what,
they can swim around by means of hair-like
flagella. Now, that must motivate your kid to
join swimming classes.
Discovery of rock-eating microbes have suggested
that similar life could exist on other planets.
Extremophile may well be a 'normal' form of life
in universe. Astrobiologists love genome
sequencing of extremophiles, they are 'extremophilophiles'.
Think of it, there is nothing called vacuum. Add
Stephen Hawkins' theory of expanding universe
and space-time to it, and soon one will have the
wisdom to become an extreme thinker-'Philo-sopher'.
There is no such thing as zero and nothing is
infinity. Or is it just that we don't know?
After all, we are limited by the nature, we can
detect light spectrum of only a particular
range, can hear sound frequencies within a small
range, always between a maxima and a minima. But
yes, we can think, with no boundaries. Cogito
ergo sum.
Talking of extremes, what do you call someone
who loves extremely poor law and order, extreme
corruption, extreme poverty, etc. Do
extremophiles have a message for such people?
Come on, give me a break, you don't have to
bring politics into everything. You,
Politicophile!
The facts described in this article are taken
from the official website of NASA and
www.space.com.
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