Life in Extreme Environments & Roots of Life

Main content

Life is thought to have arisen around 3.8 billion years ago beginning with relatively simple one-celled micro-organisms. Having existed about two billion years longer than multi-celled (eukaryotic) organisms, these prokaryotic micro-organisms are extraordinarily diverse and live in an extremely broad range of habitats.

Life in Extreme Environments & Roots of Life scientists:

Ida Helene Steen (Theme Leader)
Håkon Dahle
Runar Stokke
Irene Roalkvam
Anita-Elin Fedøy
Sven Le Moine Bauer
Jan van der Roost
Anders Schouw

Fluorscence micoscopic image of microbes

Photo:

Frida Lise Daae

Extremophiles in action at Yellowstone National Park, USA.

Photo:

Alden Denny

About the Roots of Life

Since their discovery, Archaea were suspected to be descendents or even living fossils of the earliest life forms.

Research Overview

See what projects the Life in Extreme Environments & Roots of Life theme is working on now! (Updated June 2014)

Theme Goals and Methods

The questions and objectives the theme pursues and the main methods they use in their research

The Virosphere – the last frontier

There are still scientific discoveries to be made! The new EU project, Virus-X, plans to explore new frontiers in a number of areas.

Metagenomics-based enzyme discovery

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are extreme environments for life. They represent one of a few ecosystems on Earth where life is based on chemosynthesis instead of photosynthesis.

Excellent Results from a Centre of Excellence

In 2007 the Centre for Geobiology (CGB) was established through the Research Council of Norway’s Centre of Excellence Scheme. This week Centre post-doc, Steffen Leth Jørgensen, is one of the first author’s on a ground-breaking paper that is published in Nature.

Win-Win: Exchange Experience Led to Research Breakthrough

Geobiology master student, Andreas Gilje Sjøberg, had an opportunity to study abroad in a lab in Brittany during his master studies. His work there yielded unexpected and important results!

17.11.2016