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Article: Life in Extreme Water Environments
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- Water:Science and Issues
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. 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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Life in Extreme Water Environments
Beginning in the early 1990s, scientific knowledge of the environmental limits of microbial life on Earth expanded dramatically as microbiologists applied new methods of molecular biology over a broad range of environmental extremes. Microbial species are now known to occupy a vast range of environments that previously were unimagined. New discoveries have revolutionized scientific understanding of Earth's biosphere, opened up new views of the history of terrestrial (land-based) life, and increased the possibilities that life could develop elsewhere in the cosmos.
The name applied to this new research area of biology is extremophiles research. ...