Science and story in symbiosis. This is the wisdom of the modern mythologist. The triad of life and death.
I. In the Deepest of Places…
They’re possibly the oldest living beings on earth. They possess the power to create and destroy life-giving climates. They thrive in the deepest of places and most extreme conditions – submarine springs, volcanic vents, hot desert sands, glacial ice – as well as in marshlands, rice paddies, landfills, sewage plants, and in the guts of termites, ruminants, and humans. Discovering their existence forced scientists to restructure the phylogenetic tree and rethink the origins of life.
Their name is only just beginning to make it into our mainstream vocabulary. They are methanogens.
Methanogens are methane generating microorganisms who can only survive in anaerobic environments. Because of their microscopic size and inability to survive in air containing oxygen they weren’t identified until the 20th century. Yet suspicions about their existence had been inferred.
In 1776 Alessandro Volta discovered the flammability of marsh gas on Lake Maggiore…
View original post 1,362 more words
