Extreme Environments Scientific Background

In addition to the readings and hand-outs provided in the activity (also shown below), there are many materials easily accessed on the World Wide Web. New discoveries are being made daily concerning the extreme environments of Earth and the creatures that live there. These discoveries could serve as an exciting addition to the activity in order to further stimulate student interest. Check out the Astrobiology Web and Astrobiology at NASA for the latest press releases.

• Europa (moon of Jupiter)
• Io (moon of Jupiter)
• Mars
• Titan (moon of Saturn)
• Triton (moon of the planet Neptune)
• "Chapter #17: Microbial Diversity in Archaea" from Brock -Biology of Microorganisms by Madigan, Martiko and Parker:
  http://cw.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/brock/chapter17/deluxe.html
• "Extremophiles" from the Virtual Museum of Bacteria:
  http://www.bacteriamuseum.org/niches/evolution/extremophiles.shtml
• "Inroduction to the Archaea" from UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology:
  http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html

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