January 7, 2007

Super small extremophiles

Filed under: Science — Tim @ 11:02 pm

I’ve mentioned our survivalists friends before.  Some can live in extremely hot places, others in very cold environments.

Now it appears that some of these versatile microbes are smaller than the typical bits of pond scum found on your fishing pants.  In this case, this newly discovered specimen is the smallest known living organism — smaller than bacteria, and just slightly larger than a virus.

I wonder if they have any pygmy or dwarven cousins.