"Deep Beneath Your Feet, They Live in the Octillions"

"The real journey to the center of the Earth has begun, and scientists are discovering subsurface microbial beings that shake up what we think we know about life."

"At the surface, boiling water kills off most life. But Geogemma barossii is a living thing from another world, deep within our very own. Boiling water — 212 degrees Fahrenheit — would be practically freezing for this creature, which thrives at temperatures around 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

No other organism on the planet is known to be able to live at such extreme heat.

But it’s just one of many mysterious microbes living in a massive subterranean habitat that until recently has been practically invisible. Over the past decade, scientists from around the world have banded together under the Deep Carbon Observatory to make sense of these hidden habitats. The observatory’s researchers presented some of their recent discoveries last week."

JoAnna Klein reports for the New York Times December 19, 2018.

Source: NY Times, 12/24/2018