Microbes across Earth’s coldest regions are becoming more active as glaciers, permafrost and sea ice thaw, accelerating carbon release and potentially amplifying climate change, according to a new international review from McGill University.
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Published on: 26 Jan 2026
The extremely salty, very cold, and almost oxygen-free environment under the permafrost of Lost Hammer Spring in Canada’s High Arctic is the one that most closely resembles certain areas on Mars. So, if you want to learn more about the kinds of life forms that could once have existed – or may still exist – on Mars, this is a good place to look. After much searching under extremely difficult conditions, McGill University researchers have found microbes that have never been identified before.
Published on: 21 Jun 2022
The distinctive “fecal prints” of microbes potentially provide a record of how Earth and life have co-evolved over the past 3.5 billion years as the planet’s temperature, oxygen levels, and greenhouse gases have changed. But, despite more than 60 years of study, it has proved difficult, until now, to “read” much of the information contained in this record. Research from McGill University and Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), sheds light on the mysterious digestive processes of microbes, opening the way towards a better understanding of how life and the planet have changed over time.
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Published on: 23 Dec 2014
