Earth's Own Mars, the Atacama Desert Yields Amazing Extremophile Microbes 63
A University of Colorado-Boulder team has uncovered extremophile microbes in the rocky, high-altitude Atacama desert on the Chile-Argentina border "which seem to have a different way of converting energy than their cousins elsewhere in the world." According to the researchers, "[T]hese are very different than anything else that has been cultured. Genetically, they’re at least 5 percent different than anything else in the DNA database of 2.5 million sequences." It's an exciting frontier for biologists in part because of the recurring interest in the possibility that life has existed (or does exist) on Mars; the dry, volcanic Atacama is often compared to the Martian surface.
Re:BS comparison (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to mention that they come from a life-rich planet that has given this area a multitude of different combinations to try before any became sustainable. Life on Earth can adapt to all sorts of hostile environments, but that doesn't mean that it can originate from them.