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Description
The module examines the origins, development and adjustment of microbial life in extreme environmental conditions.
Topics explore how microorganisms survive extreme environmental conditions, such as permafrost, high salt concentrations, radiation, and high temperatures.
The module will consider information from late space missions and identification of extreme habitats in other planetary bodies that could potentially harbour life, examining ways to look for, and recognise such biochemical signatures.
List of topics:
- Origins, evolution and adaptation of life in extreme environmental habitats
- Parameters, requirements and limits of life in extremes
- Types and characteristics of extremophiles
- Current applications and prospects of extremophiles
- Comparison of life in terrestrial extreme environmental conditions to other planetary bodies
Learning outcomes:
- Recognise different extremophile types and habitation zones
- Discuss competing theories of how and where modern extremophiles might have originated
- Describe the evolutionary biochemical processes that extremophiles have adopted for survival
- Project to life adaptation processes, due to environmental changes
- Acknowledge and recognise the possibility of similar conditions within our solar system
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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