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Life in Extreme EnvironmentsEach recent report of liquid water existing elsewhere in the solar system has reverberated through the international press and excited the imagination of humankind. Why? Because in the last few decades we have come to realize that where there is liquid water on Earth, virtually no matter what the physical conditions, there is life. What we previously thought of as insurmountable physical and chemical barriers to life, we now see as yet another niche harboring 'extremophiles'. This realization, coupled with new data on the survival of microbes in the space environment and modeling of the potential for transfer of life between celestial bodies, suggests that life could be more common than previously thought. Here we critically examine what it means to be an extremophile, the implications of this for evolution, biotechnology, and especially the search for life in the cosmos.
Document ID
20030000510
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Rothschild, Lynn
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Bram, James A.
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2002
Subject Category
Exobiology
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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