Extremophiles – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

Tardigrades – also known as moss piglets – prefer damp environments, but they can survive just about anywhere. Thomas Shahan/Flickr

October 30, 2025

Water bears survive cosmic radiation with one DNA‑protecting protein – learning how could boost human resilience, too

Tardigrades make a unique damage suppressor protein that researchers are working to harness for medicine, space, agriculture, data storage and more.

Genome-scale metabolic models capture the complex chemical reactions that allow cells to function. Yuri Arcurs/iStock via Getty Images Plus

January 6, 2025

Microbes can colonize space, produce drugs and create energy − researchers are simulating their inner workings to harness how

Blaise Manga Enuh, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Using digital blueprints of the metabolism of microbes, scientists can simulate expensive and time-intensive experiments set in space, power plants and farm fields.

A bioluminescent deep-sea jellyfish. Moritz Wolf/imageBROKER/Alamy

September 27, 2024

The deep sea is a potential gold mine – so long as we don’t mine it

Erik Zhivkoplias, Stockholm University and Robert Blasiak, Stockholm University

A new database documents 16,000 proteins from deep-sea organisms that could yield new inventions.

Extremophile bacteria (yellow) can be seen in Yellowstone Park’s Octopus Spring. (C. M. Helm-Clark/Wikimedia Commons)

February 22, 2024

Extreme environments are coded into the genomes of the organisms that live there

Kathleen A. Hill, Western University and Lila Kari, University of Waterloo

Computer analysis of the genomes of extremophiles — organisms that live in extreme environments — reveals that their living conditions are recorded in their DNA.

In late summer the snow banks on these mountains turn pink, known as “watermelon snow”, thanks to blooming extremophiles. Bryant Olsen/Flickr

August 10, 2021

Extremophiles: resilient microorganisms that help us understand our past ‑ and future

Jaz L Millar, Cardiff University

How do organisms survive extreme conditions – and how can their adaptations help us develop better technology?

An artist’s impression of an exoplanet in the habitable zone around a star. ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

January 7, 2020

An Earth‑sized planet found in the habitable zone of a nearby star

Ravi Kumar Kopparapu, NASA

NASA scientists have discovered a new planet orbiting around a nearby star that is in a habitable zone. But does this planet have liquid oceans that can support life?

Microbes can survive in the frozen coastal desert soils of Antarctica’s Miers Valley. Don Cowan

June 26, 2016

Microbes in extreme heat and cold hold lessons about life on Earth, and beyond

Don Cowan, University of Pretoria

Microbes have the ability to survive in extremely hot and cold conditions. This makes them invaluable tools for research: they can teach us how life has evolved and how we survive.

Even with water temperatures down to -20°C, Deep Lake is home to a surprising amount of life (and not just our research camp). Rick Cavicchioli

September 30, 2013

Sub‑zero heroes: extremophiles call salty Antarctic lakes home

Ricardo Cavicchioli, UNSW

Imagine a lake so salty its water exists in a liquid state at -20 °C – then picture something thriving in that seemingly lethal environment. Such an organism exists; several of them, in fact. In a paper…

It’s not just oil that these rigs extract. Sometimes they reveal life quite alien to us. Nepenthes

June 19, 2013

Microbes living deep under the sea reveal the extremes of life

John Parnell, University of Aberdeen

Over the past 20 years, research has revealed large populations of creatures living many miles below the Earth’s surface. Now, a new study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports conducted by…

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