Word: oceanic
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...hard to imagine a more inhospitable place on earth than the hydrothermal vents that pepper the ocean floor. These cracks in the sea bottom spew water superheated by rising magma to as high as 750[degrees]F and contaminated with toxic substances such as hydrogen sulfide, cadmium, arsenic and lead. Yet despite these lethal conditions, life not only survives but thrives in the form of colonies of microbes that feed on poison and multiply in temperatures that could hard-boil...
...shouldn't exist. Microorganisms are thriving in thermal springs in Yellowstone National Park and in pristine veins of water two miles underground in South Africa. They're living in solid rock at the bottom of deep mines. They're growing in brine pools five times saltier than the ocean, in tiny pockets of liquid embedded in sea ice and in places with toxic levels of heavy metals, acids and even radiation...
...liquid water is a minimum requirement for existence. But if that water can range from frigid to boiling, and if burial underground isn't a problem, then it's not crazy to think that life exists in the permafrost beneath the surface of Mars, or in the ice-capped ocean that may encircle Jupiter's moon Europa, or in the seas that may exist on Saturn's moon Titan. Indeed, NASA considers extremophiles so relevant to its search for life in the universe that in 1997 it created the Astrobiology Institute at its Ames Research Center near San Francisco, devoted...
...company already has several extremophile-derived products on the market and plans to launch five more this year. One is an enzyme from a deep-ocean-vent bacterium that improves the synthesis of high-fructose corn syrup (used as a sweetener in soft drinks). Another will be used in genetic research. Yet another will make animal feed more nutritious...
...really "a management sim[ulation]," says Bodman. You are "town planner, chief executive, deity even," supplying roads, housing, electricity, employment. The exhibition's section on The Sims, the virtual dollhouse bought by more women than men, shows original designs for characters and decor, as well as artwork by painter Ocean Quigley, who has worked on the series. One of the exhibition's objectives is to highlight the role of the artists behind the games. Commentators don't often talk about the aesthetics, says Bodman, preferring to concentrate on sales. Another aim is to raise questions about the morality of violence...