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Recent discoveries of living organisms in conditions where once life wasn't thought to be possible has greatly expanded our scope when looking for life in the Universe, as environments that should be sterile and dead could instead reveal to be teeming with life. It's important to keep in mind that, most probably, life on Earth didn't appear in such conditions, but just adapted to them after arising in a more comfortable environment; still, this leaves the possibility of life on worlds that once were more hospitable (such as Venus or Mars) or subjected to panspermia.

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  • Extreme environments
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  • Recent discoveries of living organisms in conditions where once life wasn't thought to be possible has greatly expanded our scope when looking for life in the Universe, as environments that should be sterile and dead could instead reveal to be teeming with life. It's important to keep in mind that, most probably, life on Earth didn't appear in such conditions, but just adapted to them after arising in a more comfortable environment; still, this leaves the possibility of life on worlds that once were more hospitable (such as Venus or Mars) or subjected to panspermia.
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  • Recent discoveries of living organisms in conditions where once life wasn't thought to be possible has greatly expanded our scope when looking for life in the Universe, as environments that should be sterile and dead could instead reveal to be teeming with life. It's important to keep in mind that, most probably, life on Earth didn't appear in such conditions, but just adapted to them after arising in a more comfortable environment; still, this leaves the possibility of life on worlds that once were more hospitable (such as Venus or Mars) or subjected to panspermia. Acidity and alkalinity are measured by the abundance of ions, respectively protons/hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH−). Such ions are dangerous for organisms because they're highly reactive and they disrupt chemical processes. Organisms that live in a medium with a pH lower than 2 (that is, more acid than lemon juice) are called acidophiles. Thiobacillus, a chemoautotrophic bacterium, oxides sulfur inside sulfuric acid, at a pH of 1.3, while Acetobacter oxides ethanol producing acetic acid (vinegar); the archaea Picrophilus, the most extreme known acidophile, lives in boiling pools of sulfuric acid with a pH close to 0; in fact, it cannot live with a pH above 4. Many yeasts and bacteria thrive in the gastric juice of animals (pH close of roughly 1.4). Acidophilus constantly pumps protons out of their cells. On the contrary, alkaliphiles live in a pH above 9, where they survive with acidic polymers that keep out hydroxide while allowing in positively charged ions such as hydronium (H3O+) and sodium (Na+). Lake Nakuru, in Kenya, is a highly alkaline soda lake (pH around 10) that hosts a great number of alkaliphile bacteria, protists and rotifers, that in turn feed colonies of flamingos.
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