Hunting extreme microbes that redefine the limits of life

Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth Karen G. Lloyd Princeton University Press (2025) Is there such a thing as a ‘beach read on microbial thermodynamics’? That was how Karen Lloyd, the author of Intraterrestrials, informally billed her book when talking to her friends in science (including myself) — and at a beach-bag-friendly 200 pages or so, this lively and compulsively engaging book is an unusual page-turner. Lloyd, a geomicrobiologist, expertly guides readers who have a taste for biological adventures to ‘intraterrestrial’ life: microorganisms that survive under the most extreme environmental conditions, such as in Earth’s deep sediments, deep ocean crust, volcanoes and permafrost soil. Glaciers are not just blocks of ice — plans to save them mustn’t overlook their hidden life The encounters include microbes that have never been cultured before, or that can live on extremely limited energy supplies, or that persist in states of suspended animation, their bi ... Read full article.