Recrod thermophile, with references

[Kevin Korth]

This is, once again, proof that it's easier to print than to
retract...feathers in the wind, so to speak.

I'm working entirely off memory, so hopefully some other posters will
provide the appropriate references (or call Barbara Hemmingsen at San Diego
State University, she know's this by heart).  Several years ago a group of
microbiologists working on hydrothermal vents at extreme depths published a
paper claiming that they'd discovered this "hyperthermophile" that could
live temps over 200*C.  Naturally the press went wild with this story and it
made it "scientific fact."  What is usually not told is that shortly
thereafter a group of microbiologists reviewing the study and attempting to
replicate it discovered that the experimental design was riddled with errors
and that they had not done the proper controls. They had, in fact,
discovered nothing.  What they were seeing was an artifact of a poorly
designed experiment.  Unfortunately, the press didn't jump on the bandwagon
of the new findings and even today textbooks reference this imaginary
hyperthermophile as fact.

I always get a chuckle when I see references to this imaginary organism...a
lesson in science and the press.

Brian Davis wrote in message <3523BE37.21ED at umich.edu>...
>A poster on sci.astro has mentioned a hyperthermophile (discovered by
>Baross?) that was collected at 343 deg-C and grows in the lab at 248
>deg-C and 265 Atm (I'm assuming this was found at a hydrothermal vent).
>Does anyone have a reference for this, or for other hyperthermophiles?
>what is the current record-holder? What are the theoretical limits? To
>my knowledge (I'm a physicist - I'm way out of my league here) the
>record-holder is around 112 deg-C, and I've done some reading that
>implies that this is probably near the limits.
>
>                                              -Brian Davis