Red marks the spot: Network of complex microbes discovered at mysterious Blood Falls

A research team co-led by a Yale scientist has identified complex organisms near the Blood Falls area of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica — a discovery that offers new implications for how microbial life adapts to harsh environmental conditions. Blood Falls, a mysterious, red-colored waterfall that flows from the edge of an Antarctic glacier, has finally revealed some of its biological secrets, more than a century after its discovery.

A research team led by Yale University, the University of California at San Diego, and the J. Craig Venter Institute in California has found a community of complex microbes at the foot of the Taylor Glacier, an ice sheet in the Victoria Land region of eastern Antarctica. The microbial discovery has implications for the resilience of complex cells under extreme environmental conditions, and for the mechanisms by which microbial life adapted to climate change in the distant past <Read more>