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Article: Bacteria are proof that living things can survive on ocean's bottom.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- August 18, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ABOARD THE RONALD H. BROWN _ Life depends on the Sun, right? We need its heat keep us warm. Its light supplies the energy that plants turn into the food that nourishes us all.
That's what you probably learned in school, but it ain't necessarily so.
Scientists aboard this government research ship 250 miles off the coast of Oregon spent 20 days earlier this summer investigating an underwater menagerie of creatures, both large and small, that make their living on the bleak, sunless bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
The realization that organisms can get along without sunlight is "one of the most important biological findings of the 20th century," said ...