JOE JORDAN: In fact, an organism discovered here in Yellowstone gave scientists the enzyme used in most new gene sequencing techniques. And that's exactly the situation we've been at in the microbial world until really quite recently. NORM PACE: Imagine if our entire understanding of biology were based on a visit to the zoo. But most of what we know about microbes comes from being able to analyze their DNA, says University of Colorado molecular scientist Norm Pace. Plotting where microbes live and what they eat helps color in the map of evolutionary relationships, from ancient to modern organisms. Back in his lab, he’ll study variations among their genes for arsenic tolerance. JOE JORDAN: At the edge of a bubbling hot spring, McDermott samples soil for microbes. TIM MCDERMOTT: Mercury, lead - copper, zinc if it weren't a national park, at least places would probably be designated a super-fund site. Some of these microbes even live on arsenic – a poison to us, but one of several heavy metals found naturally here in Yellowstone. He studies microbes that live here in the 200-degree Fahrenheit geothermal pools of Norris Basin, a volcanically active backcountry area of the park. JOE JORDAN: That’s Tim McDermott, a soil microbiologist at Montana State University’s Thermal Biology Institute. G'morning it's a great day to be here in Yellowstone, and it's a great place to work. TIM MCDERMOTT: Welcome to Yellowstone National Park, Joe. How could anything have lived through these conditions? For answers, scientists come to a place where our planet’s internal heat still leaks out, in scalding steam geysers and brilliantly colored hot springs teeming with life … Boiling mud pools, toxic chemicals … big chunks of rock and ice crashing in from the sky. JOE JORDAN: Imagine the early earth, more than three and a half billion years ago. What scientists are learning here may help us unravel the biggest puzzles of all time: How did life get started? And what are the most extreme conditions in which it can survive? Joe Jordan has this story… For most of us, it’s a spectacle of geysers and bison for genetic scientists it’s a hotbed of microbial research, home to nature’s tiniest creatures. JOHN HOCKENBERRY: Yellowstone National Park. JOHN HOCKENBERRY: All this when we return with The DNA Files. PAUL DAVIES: There can surely be no greater challenge than to understand how a mixture of non-living chemicals turn themselves spontaneously into the first living thing. It may be one of the most difficult and most rewarding challenges facing science today, says physicist Paul Davies. As we’ll see, it’s not the search for little green men, but rather the search for any sign of life at all. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration-NASA-has dubbed the field Astrobiology, a marriage of sorts between astrophysics and biology. Cosmic omelet how to#In this program, Life: How to Make a Cosmic Omelet, we’ll be looking at where life came from, and what genetic research is telling us about where else we might find it. JOHN HOCKENBERRY: Welcome to The DNA Files. Last reviewed for accuracy: February 2002. Cosmic omelet series#(510) further information about genetics and these programs, as well as the producers who brought you this series, visit the project web site at Send your questions about genetics and this project to for this series was made possible by generous grants from The National Science Foundation and the Alfred P.
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