Life on the Edge: Facts

last update:
01.01.2001

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English Editions	Deutsche Ausgabe	Edition Française	Edición en español
Life on the Edge. Amazing Creatures Thriving in Extreme Environments Hardback: Plenum, May 1998; reprinted by Perseus Books August 1999, ISBN 0-306-45786-5, $ 25.95, 200 + xiii pp. Paperback (with a new afterword): Perseus Books January 2001, ISBN 0-738-20445-5, $ 15.00, 210 + xiii pp.	Exzentriker des Lebens. Zellen zwischen Hitzeschock und Kältestreß Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, Mai 1997, ISBN 3-8274-0139-9, DM 49.80, 302 pp.	... va paraître aux Editions Belin en automne 2001	La vida al límite Los derechos para una edición en español estan todavía disponibles.

Amazing facts

about life under extreme conditions

Did you know ...

...that there are microbes whose optimal growth temperature is above 100 C?
... that the entire volume of the oceans circulates through the deep sea hot springs once in eight million years (i.e. several hundred times since the oceans came into being!)?
... that there are more than 1000 plant species in the antarctic?
... that fresh water lakes beneath the antarctic ice shield have remained liquid for thousands of years?
... that sperm whales have been found at depths up to 2440 meters below the surface (corresponding to a pressure of 244 atmospheres)?
... that evolution has invented bioluminescence more than 30 times separately?
... that the light of the flashlight fish reaches more than 30 meters through water and is produced by bacteria living in symbiosis with the fish?
... that bacteria thriving on stone and water have been found up to 1500 meters below ground?
... that the green plant Welwitschia mirabilis can live in places with only 10 mm rainfall per year for thousands of years?
... that the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans can survive radioactive treatment at a thousandfold of the radiation density that would kill a human and can reassemble its genome from hundreds of fragments without error?
... that the Dead Sea is actually very much alive, with halophilic archaebacteria thriving everywhere and a halotolerant alga in some places?
... that oil-degrading microbes are suspected of damaging ancient monuments since hydrocarbon pollution in the air gave them the chance to live on them?
... that in Japan you can buy marmelade produced by pressure treatment instead of heating?
... that artificial snow is made with the help of a bacterial ice nucleation protein?
... that scientists revived bacterial spores that had been enclosed in amber for at least 25 million years?
... that ulcers are caused by acid-resistent bacteria (and not by excess acid production of the stomach as dogma held for 2000 years)?
... that archaebacteria are as different from common bacteria as from plants and animals?
... that scientists had serious trouble trying to discover intelligent life on Earth from a height of just 1000 km?
... that Saturn's satellite Titan is the second most likely body in our solar system to have harboured extraterrestrial life?

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E	Facts	cover	table of contents	introduction	reviews	events	update	books	links	E
D	Fakten	Titel	Inhalt	Einleitung	Rezensionen	Lesungen	Update	Bücher	Links	D
F	Saviez-vous?	couverture	table des matieres	introduction	critiques	évènements	update	livres	liens	F
E	¿Sabéis que?	cobierta	contenidos	introducción	criticas	novedades	update	libros	enlaces	E

Dr Michael Groß

michael@michaelgross.co.uk

www.michaelgross.co.uk

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