In the driest parts of the Atacama Desert there are no visible life forms on soil or rock surfaces.
The soil in this region contains only minute traces of bacteria distributed in patches, and …

The hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert is considered the dry limit for life on Earth. Soils in
this region have very low abundance of heterotrophic bacteria and are practically barren of …

Mars has undergone three main climatic stages throughout its geological history, beginning
with a water-rich epoch, followed by a cold and semi-arid era, and transitioning into present-…

Hygroscopic salts have been detected in soils in the northern latitudes of Mars, and widespread
chloride-bearing evaporitic deposits have been detected in the southern highlands. The …

This article reviews current knowledge on microbial communities inhabiting endolithic habitats
in the arid and hyper-arid regions of our planet. In these extremely dry environments, the …

The three-dimensional structures of two types of cyanobacterium-dominated microbial mats
from meltwater ponds on the McMurdo Ice Shelf were as determined by using a broad suite …

Taxa within diverse lineages select and transport exogenous materials for the purposes of
camouflage. This adaptive behavior also occurs in insects, most famously in green lacewing …

The biodeterioration effects of microorganisms colonizing the cloister terrace wall of the
Jeronimos Monastery (Lisbon) were evaluated using several microscopy techniques that allow …

In the space experiments Lithopanspermia, experimental support was provided to the
likelihood of the lithopanspermia concept that considers a viable transport of microorganisms …

The Atacama Desert, northern Chile, is one of the driest deserts on Earth and, as such, a
natural laboratory to explore the limits of life and the strategies evolved by microorganisms to …