Science Ahoy!

a legacy of our discomgoogolation

Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely

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Show me the meaning of being lonely
Is this the feeling I need to walk with
Tell me why I can’t be there where you are

Simply because it is inhabitable, baby.

The first ecosystem ever found having only a single biological species has been discovered 2.8 kilometers (1.74 miles) beneath the surface of the earth in the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa. There the rod-shaped bacterium Desulforudis audaxviator exists in complete isolation, total darkness, a lack of oxygen, and 60-degree-Celsius heat (140 degrees Fahrenheit).

D. audaxviator survives in a habitat where it gets its energy not from the sun but from hydrogen and sulfate produced by the radioactive decay of uranium.

Read more.

Written by Elgie Shepard

October 11, 2008 at 11:27 am

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