Learn about endoliths, the polyextremophiles that thrive inside rocks

These organisms include species that live in Antarctica, where they perform photosynthesis using light and water that makes it through pores in sandstone. Others residing in Earth's crust can survive temperatures reaching 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) while generating energy through chemical reactions involving nutrients and gases trapped in rocks.

The robust wine production of Antarctica

Antarctica might not be known for its agriculture, but parts of its unique climate are suitable for growing wine grapes. Most of the wine produced there is icewine, a style of dessert wine commonly found in Canada and Germany. This guide covers Antarctica’s unique soil composition, grape varieties, and how exactly penguins contribute to this unusual wine-growing region. There’s even a recommendation for an Antarctic tasting room for adventurous souls.

An overview of extremophiles and the biochemical adaptations employed by various types

These organisms thrive in environments that would normally be inhospitable to most living things by using molecules that help counter deadly environmental factors. These include antifreeze-like proteins that prevent psychrophiles from freezing and rupturing in polar regions, and osmoprotectants that prevent some extremophiles from losing water to salty environments.

Read a technical review of extremophile categories, including the habitats of each

Acidophiles can survive in environments with acidity greater than that of the human stomach, and some radiophiles can live in places with radiation exposure hundreds of times higher than what is lethal to humans. Piezophiles—formerly known as barophiles—have been found in the Mariana Trench, where pressures are over 1,000 times larger than those on Earth's surface.

How a deadly antarctic expedition turned poisonous

A deadly 1912 scientific expedition to the Antarctic took a turn for the worse when the expedition team's leader turned to man's best friend to fuel their journey. This 21-minute podcast episode provides a glimpse into the real-life dangers of...

View a gallery of animals found on abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, seamounts, and other deep-sea habitats.

Studying the circadian clock of a tiny swimming polar creature may help forecast polar ecosystem health

A 2025 study found that Antarctic krill, a food chain staple in the Southern Ocean, have an internal biological clock that helps regulate its swimming patterns and helps the tiny shrimp-like animals adapt to daily and seasonal environmental changes. Better understanding of how the clock and light cues interact may help scientists understand how well the species will respond to pronounced climate change in the polar region.

In 2025, UK scientists began studying climate data from a 1.5-million-year-old ice core

The Antarctica sample will be melted and analyzed in Cambridge to learn about prehistoric environmental conditions. Researchers hope the ice core reveals how Earth's glacial cycles shifted dramatically around 800,000 years ago.

The Southern Ocean's powerful circular current isolates organisms in its environment

The spiralling current churns up nutrients across the frigid waters, leading to the evolution of fantastical organisms, including century-old starfish and colossal squid, and unique adaptations, including the icefish's clear blood and organic antifreeze, over the past 30 million years.

'Watermelon snow'—patches of pink, orange, and red in snow—is the result of extremophilic green algae that thrive in extremely frigid conditions and take the shape of red spheres in winter.

Adapt or freeze: How plants and animals thrive in the Arctic Tundra

This article explores the fascinating ways both animals and plants adapt to survive in Alaska's arctic tundra, an ecosystem marked by its extreme weather. Most tundra plants are perennials with short growing seasons that focus on gathering and...

Dive into the ocean's hottest water to explore hydrothermal vents

What can live at temperatures of 700 degrees Fahrenheit under skull crushing pressure with zero sunlight? Meet the animals living in the most extreme conditions on Earth in this four-minute video.

Take a virtual tour of the Royal Research Ship named after David Attenborough

Operated by the British Antarctic Survey, the RRS Sir David Attenborough and its onboard tools and laboratories have investigated the biogeochemical cycles of the Southern Ocean, the stability of Greenland's ice shelves, and the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems. One of the ship's autonomous underwater vehicles was named Boaty McBoatface based on the results of a naming poll from the Natural Environment Research Council.

A look at hydrothermal vents, where barophiles and hyperthermophiles survive boiling water

Discovered in 1977 during an exploration of the Galapagos Rift, these seafloor openings spew hot magma and chemicals that heat seawater to hundreds of degrees. Without the sunlight found at depths of less than 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), extremophiles in these environments convert released chemicals into energy to survive, alongside surviving extreme pressures.

Why extremophiles may play an important role in terraforming Mars

Possessing unique biochemicals that can detoxify extreme environments and resilience against the Martian surface that is lethal to humans, scientists are exploring whether colonies of these organisms can transform small areas of the Red Planet into future habitats for humans. Extremophiles may also be best equipped to serve as microscopic factories for the fabrication of essential polymers.

View thermophiles found in Hot Springs National Park, including nanobacteria and ostracods

Most organisms in this subset of extremophiles live at temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees Celsius (140 to 176 degrees Fahrenheit), which is hot enough to unfold proteins needed for most biochemical reactions. In thermophiles, these molecules, including those needed to replicate DNA during cellular division, are tightly packed and held by stronger bonds to resist changes in shape.

A four-billion-year-old meteorite reignited the debate about life on Mars

Recovered from Antarctica in 1984, ALH84001 contained organic compounds, magnetite and iron sulfide grains of potential biological origin, and features that resembled fossilized bacteria. With technological advancements, scientists found abiotic origins for these features in the following decades.

How glaciers melt

Greenland and Antarctica are home to most of the world's glacial ice, including its only two ice sheets, making them areas of particular interest to scientists. Watch this three-minute video to learn why understanding them is not just interesting, but crucial to our near-term adaptability and our long term survival in a changing world.

Explore the Arctic from your living room

Explore the unique ecosystem and wildlife of the Arctic tundra thanks to Google Earth and Explore.org. Captured from a series of stationary and moving live cams, watch polar bears gather as they wait for the Hudson Bay to freeze so they can search...

Why the existence of extremophiles greatly improves the odds of life beyond Earth

The conditions for life have long been thought to include liquid water, an energy source, and the essential elements for organic molecules within environments on or near Earth's surface. However, because extremophiles thrive in far more inhospitable environments, astronomers now analyze exoplanets whose characteristics indicate environments that fall within a broader range of possibilities when searching for signs of extraterrestrial life.

Extremophiles were likely to have been Earth's first, and are expected to be its last, organisms

Their ability to survive in an enormous range of environmental conditions, including some resembling what has been modeled to have existed relatively shortly after Earth's formation, makes them the leading candidates for enduring the increasing solar intensity and the subsequent effects (e.g., zero-oxygen atmosphere, evaporated oceans) expected in the coming billions of years.

The discovery of the first extremophile and how it revolutionized DNA analysis

While investigating samples taken from within and around the hot springs at Yellowstone National Park, microbiologist Thomas Brock discovered Thermus aquaticus, a microorganism that thrived in hot water. It contained an enzyme called Taq polymerase, a critical molecule in polymerase chain reaction—a molecular photocopier that amplifies genetic signals to improve medical diagnostics.

Fish in polar waters contain proteins in their blood that act as antifreeze, and some manufacturers have used lab-grown versions of these proteins to help keep ice cream smooth.

Dinosaurs thrived in the Arctic year round

The Arctic in the Cretaceous Period was a rough place to live, especially in winter. And yet, the fossils of many kinds of dinosaurs have been discovered there. So how were they able to survive in this harsh environment?

Why the Antarctic climate enabled British scientists to discover the ozone hole

In the Antarctic stratosphere, polar conditions facilitate the formation of polar stratospheric clouds, which allow chlorine compounds from chlorofluorocarbons to accumulate. In 1985, British Antarctic Survey scientists detected massive springtime losses over Antarctica, as accumulated compounds destroyed significant amounts of ozone once sunlight returned.

Extreme temperature resilience appears to be temporary for tardigrades

Although often considered indestructible, scientists observed these creatures could endure temperatures near 150°C for only a few minutes in their tun state. Outside this state, only half the samples in a Danish study survived 37.1 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours, making tardigrades extremotolerant rather than extremophiles.

Lining up every microbe on Earth would stretch to about 105,000 light-years

There are about 10²⁷ such organisms on the planet, many of which are adapted to produce energy through uncommon reactions in unconventional environments, such as within rocks or near volcanoes on the ocean floor. Studies of these organisms have reframed astrobiologists' search for life beyond Earth by broadening the parameters under which life can exist.

Breaking down the challenges of alkaline environments and how extremophiles survive them

These areas are far less acidic than the interiors of most organisms' cells, and this imbalance draws protons that are needed for various metabolic processes, including energy production, out of cells. To counter these effects, some alkaliphiles have developed stronger proton regulation across their cellular membranes and proteins that drive these processes with greater stability amid such acidity imbalances.

Permafrost—soil, rocks, and sand that are held together by ice and remain frozen for at least two consecutive years—covers about 15% of the Northern Hemisphere's land area.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Mold growth in space raises the hypothesis of life being brought to Earth

Panspermia suggests that life could be carried throughout the cosmos by asteroids, comets, and other objects, but it requires organisms that can withstand the extreme cold of space travel, stellar radiation, lack of water, and intense heat of planetary impacts. The discovery of mold on the International Space Station and experiments showing it can withstand radiation in outer space-like conditions increase the plausibility of the hypothesis.

A day in the coldest village on Earth

The people of Yakutia, a far northern region of Russia, live a challenging, but harmonious, life with nature, facing some of the world's coldest temperatures. Tag along for the day with 9-year-old Arian and his family to see how they manage the cold, from constant wood-chopping to keep their home warm to the meticulous ice fishing which sustains their diet.

Svalbard Brewery is the northernmost brewery in the world, located in a remote Arctic village where there are more polar bears than people.

The best photos of scientists at work in 2025

The winners of Nature's 2025 photo competition capture the essence of scientific fieldwork in diverse and challenging environments. From a biologist battling waves for whale research to ice core drilling in polar night conditions, this gallery details the research being each winning photo.

Life during three months of polar night

In Norway's Svalbard archipelago, night reigns from November to January, as with many communities living within the polar regions. Contrary to popular assumptions about such places, many residents of the region describe the long darkness as peaceful, a time to slow down and draw nearer to neighbors and community. Read more on life in polar night, specifically in the Svalbard town of Longyearbyen, in this essay from a resident there.

New species of bacteria discovered in Chinese space station

A new space-adapted bacteria species, Niallia tiangongensis, was discovered on China's Tiangong space station. The bacteria display a heightened oxidative stress response and unique biofilm-forming abilities that assist them in healing from to radiation-based damage.

How spoiled meat helped uncover a bacterium that can survive the vacuum of space

When a can of ground beef and pork spoiled despite attempts to sterilize it with gamma radiation, researcher Arthur Anderson isolated the bacteria in the food and discovered Deinococcus radiodurans. The polyextremophile has since been found on the walls of nuclear reactors and overcomes radiation damage through highly optimized DNA repair mechanisms.

What is glacial archaeology?

Melting glaciers continue to reveal archaeological and anthropological evidence previously hidden by solid ice. This article details the newer archaeological field, which was popularized after the 1991 discovery of Ötzi the Iceman. A German couple came across Ötzi as they hiked the Ötzal Alps near the Italy-Austria border. Ötzi was initially believed to be the corpse of an unlucky mountaineer, but further study revealed he had been dead for about 5,300 years.