5 Extreme Life-Forms That Live on the Edge
We humans think we’re pretty hot stuff—but that depends on what you’re measuring. When it comes to enduring harsh conditions, for example, there are creatures in this world that make us look like a bunch of cupcakes.
Meet the extremophiles, so-called because they can withstand environments so intensely hot, cold, salty, acidic, alkaline, pressurized, dry, radioactive, or barren they’d put us out like a match in a hurricane. So impressive are their superpowers that NASA made them trading cards, just like Superman.
Extremophiles not only do exceptional things, they’ve opened our minds about what life is and what kind of environments can support it, widening our view of the potential for life on other planets, scientists say.
“People who work with extremophiles have pretty much the same needs as people who are going to Mars except they can usually be there to operate the instruments themselves; they don’t have to have a robot do it. But
