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Mini Microbes

Posted by michael on from the guinness-book dept.

ComaVN writes "According to an article in Nature, a group at the University of Regensburg, Germany has found the smallest lifeform ever. It lives under extremely hostile (to us that is) conditions, in boiling water, and it has a genome of only about half a million DNA letters. Of course, smallest lifeform depends heavily on your definition of life, as most virii are actually smaller. But let's not get into that discussion :p"

2 of 17 comments (clear)

  1. nanobes by QuantumG · · Score: 3, Interesting

    still smaller, and not parasitic either.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  2. The "Martian microbe" should be looked at again by dolphin558 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A primary argument against the Martian microbe being a lifeform was that it was far smaller than any known microbes here on Earth. Now that what looks to be an EVEN SMALLER microbe has been found the spotlight should be turned back onto the 1996 landmark 'discovery' on the Martian meteorite.

    http://www.microbe.org/news/mars_rock.asp (Martian microbe)