Chapter 03 of 5
Conan the Bacterium
Meet the world's toughest microbe, surviving radiation that would melt human DNA.
- The Discovery
The Canned Meat Mystery
In 1956, scientists sterilized cans of meat with intense gamma rays. One bacterium, Deinococcus radiodurans, survived the onslaught and spoiled the food.
- Lethal Scaling
A Deadly Comparison
A dose of 5 to 10 Grays of radiation kills a human. Conan the Bacterium can shrug off 15,000 Grays without dying.
- DNA Damage
The Shattering Effect
High-dose radiation acts like a microscopic shotgun, shattering an organism's DNA into hundreds of tiny, useless pieces.
17 more cards in this chapter
Could you answer this?
How does D. radiodurans primarily survive extreme radiation doses?
🧬 Life at the Absolute Edge
- 01The Indestructible Water BearDiscover how tardigrades defy death through the magic of cryptobiosis.
- 02The Chemosynthetic AbyssDiscover life thriving on toxic chemicals in the ocean's lightless depths.
- 03Conan the BacteriumMeet the world's toughest microbe, surviving radiation that would melt human DNA.
- 04The Subglacial OasisDiscover how life thrives in the pitch-black, frozen depths of Antarctica's Lake Vostok.
- 05The Cosmic BlueprintDiscover how Earth's toughest microbes redraw the map for finding life in the stars.