From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Wed Aug 21 1996 - 14:06:55 MDT
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
On Wed, 21 Aug 96 hanson@dosh.hum.caltech.edu (Robin Hanson) Wrote:
>I'm no expert, but from reading Crick I got the strong
>impression that prokaryotic cells are much less robust to
>extreme environments, and much better tuned to the
>particulars of Earth now.
I think the opposite is true. Prokaryotic cells are so simple that there is
less to go wrong with them and thus they can survive in conditions that would
kill any eukaryotic cell. Ancient bacteria live in hot springs near the
boiling point of water, and at even higher temperature in deep sea underwater
vents, the current record was living in water at 583 degrees F. Although hot
this water was not boiling because it was under very high pressure, nothing
can live for long in boiling water.
The bacterium Micrococcus radiodurans will thrive even after being exposed to
6.5 million rontgens of Gamma rays, 10,000 times less would kill a human in
minutes. I know of no eukaryotic cell that is anywhere near that tough.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.i
iQCzAgUBMhtpMX03wfSpid95AQHuZATwwz/UJtq3ZAyRSpTmTHGJ/PifK7zCE6u1
bfVZnE5e37Wc4tj6XWDzoGDxKT5SJ1pmdIlVYNcTYojfzsWOUaQQC+XmfoC38sqi
HwOhK1avDNPJSuBjeM4k3aOu8NEZiMs4nl0/VI/s6GskrCnp783BeEFJIx9aIgr3
8NRlXzGvUYdTCN0JWGi8LnTKOmqNyBFCT6j4Dt6qmiLiU8A2tqQ=
=zVAx
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:35:43 MST