• Question: Where would you live if you were an extremophile?

    Asked by 392pang49 to Freddie, Jena, Kirsten, Kon, Zarah on 13 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Jennifer Bates

      Jennifer Bates answered on 13 Nov 2016:


      I’d want to be a thermoacidophile, just to be awkward! I’d live somewhere with high temperatures and low pH like a deep sea vent or hot spring. So I’d be something like red algae (Galdieria sulphuraria) or Thermoplasma acidophilum.

      Although I could be really awkward and be Thermococcus gammatolerans, from the 2000m deep submarine hydrothermal vent in the Guaymas Basin off the Californian coast, the most radiation-resistant organism known, which is also a hyperthermophile that likes high sulphur levels…

    • Photo: Konstantinos Drousiotis

      Konstantinos Drousiotis answered on 15 Nov 2016:


      Hi,

      I’d want to be a psychrophile as I prefer the cold to hot weather. This one called Arthrobacter cryotolerans was isolated from Antarctic soil and can grow at temperatures from -6 to 20 C. I’d be that one so I can go skiing and have a cup of tea, oh and play snowball fights with other bacteria at bacterialand lol

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