What do we owe our lives to? Many people will say, god, family, etc. but I believe that we owe our lives to the small creatures that we can't see with our naked eyes. It is easy to dismiss these organisms but they are the reasons why we are. For example, all heterotrophs need oxygen to do cellular respiration but Earth did not have an abundance of oxygen in its early stages so how did these chemical elements come into place. The answer is cyanobacteria. This prokaryote did photosynthesis and released oxygen. Over time, there was enough oxygen for life to prosper. The unique aspect of these organisms is that they can live in extreme environments. Extremophiles can give us a lot of clues about the evolution of life on Earth and also are great test subjects to see if life could develop on Mars. Now, if you have been following my blog from last year, you probably now that I am busy with my original work. My interest in extremophiles led me to start developing a laboratory experiment that would test certain extremophiles on the surface of Mars. With that said, for the past couple of weeks, I have been doing a lot of research into the climate of the red planet, I need a good understanding of this in order to effectively select the extremophiles that will be investigated. I am also planning to talk to scientists who deal with these bacterias. I am really excited about this experiment and can't wait to see what all cool things I will learn about these tiny organisms!
