Word: archaebacteria
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Compensation: Under threat of public foreclosure, make all the Final Clubs change their animal names into plant names. Or protozoa, but nothing as cool as archaebacteria. And force the Oak to rename itself the Blue-Footed Booby. Humiliation is the only thing that works on these kids...
...candidates for the oldest-form-of-life title are organisms that scientists have dubbed "archaebacteria." They are found in airless recesses like Yellowstone National Park's hot springs, thrive in temperatures ranging from 65° to 70° C. (150° to 170° F.), take in carbon dioxide and hydrogen, give off methane gas, and have been known to scientists for years. But it took the efforts of a team led by Geneticist Carl Woese of the University of Illinois in Urbana to demonstrate that the archaebacteria had an extraordinary characteristic. Using enzymes, or chemical catalysts, they broke...
This discovery has far-reaching implications. Scientists have long assumed that all terrestrial life evolved along two lines, one of which gave rise to the "higher" forms of animals and plants, the other to the "lower" forms of bacteria. The identification of the archaebacteria's unique genetic structure suggests that there may be a third line of evolution. It also provides an important clue to the earth's early environment. Scientists have long believed that for about the first billion years after the formation of the earth, the atmosphere consisted largely of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases...
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