LIFE exists even at the South Pole, one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.
Microbiologist Ed Carpenter of the State University of New York in Stony Brook and his colleagues have found between 200 and 5000 bacteria per millilitre of melted snow from the pole.
To their surprise, biochemical tests and electron microscope images show that the organisms can grow and divide even at -17 °Cthe coldest condition the team tested. "Probably they could live at even lower temperatures," says Carpenter.
Although bacteria have been found in the snow near the pole before, they were thought to have blown in accidentally. No one believed they could grow in the harsh conditions there, where temperatures range between -85 °C and -13 °C.
DNA tests revealed that all the bacteria are previously unknown species. Their closest relatives are a group called
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