Extremophiles

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2015

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

In 1977, scientists in the submersible "Alvin" were exploring the deep ocean bed off the Galapagos Islands. In the dark, they discovered hydrothermal vents, like chimneys, from which superheated water flowed. Around the vents there was an extraordinary variety of life, feeding on microbes which were thriving in the acidity and extreme temperature of the vents. While it was already known that some microbes are extremophiles, thriving in extreme conditions, such as the springs and geysers of Yellowstone Park (pictured), that had not prepared scientists for what they now found. Since the "Alvin" discovery, the increased study of extremophile microbes has revealed much about what is and is not needed to sustain life on Earth and given rise to new theories about how and where life began. It has also suggested forms and places in which life might be found elsewhere in the Universe. With Monica Grady Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University Ian Crawford Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology at Birkbeck University of London And Nick Lane Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about in our time, and for our
0:04.5	terms of use please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:07.9	Radio 4. I hope you enjoy the program.
0:10.8	Hello, in 1977 scientists made a discovery deep under the oceans that gave clues to life we might find in deepest space.
0:18.0	The explorers were inside the submersible Alvin near the Galapagos Islands visited by Darwin the
0:24.8	century before. They found hydrothermal vents like chimneys on the seabed,
0:29.8	with superheated water flowing out. There was no sunlight but around the vents there was an abundance of life
0:36.0	feeding on microbes and that were thriving in the vents in the vents extreme conditions.
0:41.2	These microbes were termed extremophiles, and a greater understanding of what they need and do not
0:46.4	need to survive as spawned theories about the origins of life here on Earth and the
0:50.8	conditions in which life might be found across the universe.
0:54.1	They also helped establish astrobiology the science of our search for life outside our planet.
0:59.8	We need to discuss extremophiles and astrobiology are, Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University.
1:08.0	Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology at Birkbeck University of London
1:14.1	and Nikolain Librida in Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London.
1:19.1	Ian Crawford, what are extremophiles?
1:21.8	Extremophiles are organisms, almost all microorganisms, which have adapted to live in environments
1:28.0	that we consider to be very extreme.
1:30.5	So they'd be very high temperatures or very low temperatures or very
1:34.2	acidic environments or very alkaline environments or environments with a
1:38.0	high radiation level and their environments which until the last few decades biologists would have thought was quite
1:45.4	were quite inimicable to life and yet suddenly we found living things have adapted to them.
	...

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