Capable of
withstanding doses of
radiation ten thousand times the strength of that which would
kill a
human,
Deinococcus radiodurans is listed in the
Guinness Book of World Records as the world's toughest bacterium. First isolated in the 1950's in cans of meat which had
spoiled despite being
irradiated, D. radiodurans has been found living everywhere from
Antarctica to the inside of
nuclear reactors. This bacterium has lent
fire to the
theory that
life first came to the
Earth aboard
meteors, as only a bacterium that can withstand
interstellar radiation could survive such a trip. D. radiodurans has also given
hope to scientists interested in creating bacteria capable of degrading nuclear waste, part of the process of
bioremediation.
Partial credit to:
Kids Discover, vol. 10 issue 10
Science News Online, www.sciencenews.org