title: Microbial survivors: thermophiles, halophiles, and other prodigies.
abstract: When biologists encounter microbes flourishing in boiling water and other extreme habitats, they often consider such creatures as merely odd, and only search for possible protective mechanisms. But it may also be that extreme habitats resemble those where life first occurred, and that such organisms provide links with earlier evolution.
authors.affiliation: Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 04011, USA. jhowland@bowdoin.edu
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Howland
mesh_terms: D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000254:growth & development*; D006801:Humans