New Scientist
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Life can survive inside a furnace heated to more than 400°C. At least, that’s the extraordinary claim being made by one group of researchers. However, others say such an unexpected conclusion will need to be supported by stronger evidence.
Conventional wisdom is that life struggles to survive when the temperature rises. The thermal limit for animal life is placed at about 50°C. Some forms of bacteria can survive life at temperatures above 100°C, with one strain confirmed to survive at 122°C.
Lynda Beladjal at Ghent University in Belgium and her colleagues knew that one limiting factor is the water within living cells. They wondered whether bacterial spores, which contain little water, could withstand higher temperatures.
The researchers placed spores of the bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens in glass test tubes. After three days of incubation in a desiccator with 0 per cent relative humidity, the test tubes were transferred to a furnace and heated, over 30 to 60 minutes, to peak temperatures between 200°C and 500°C. Then the researchers cooled the spores and assessed whether any could still grow and form cultures.
They found that spores heated to temperatures up to and including 420°C could germinate and grow. However, spores heated to 430°C or higher could not. Read more on newscientist.com…
