LIFE exists even at the South Pole, one of the most inhospitable places on
Earth.
Microbiologist Ed Carpenter of the State University of New York in Stony
Brook and his colleagues have found between 200 and 5000 bacteria per millilitre
of melted snow from the pole.
To their surprise, biochemical tests and electron microscope images show that
the organisms can grow and divide even at –17 °C—the coldest
condition the team tested. “Probably they could live at even lower
temperatures,” says Carpenter.
Although bacteria have been found in the snow near the pole before, they were
thought to have…
