Sometimes you find critters in the strangest places

A group of scientists from NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center are hunting for life in the harshest spots on Earth -- partially, one would assume, so they can use the critters as part of an effort to terraform, or make more Earth-like, other planets in the solar system like Mars.

Finding creatures that live off methane and other strange chemicals also would indicate that there are a lot more living things in this universe, and even this solar system, than you might think.

So they're off to Antarctica to look at this extremely alkaline lake, that is chemically very much like a big pool of bleach, to see if there's anything crawling around there.

And they may just find some. Already they've already found new species of microbes in the ice and permafrost of Alaska, Siberia, Patagonia and Antarctica.

It's this quote, from a story on Science Daily, though, that got me giggling about some of the past spots they've found these critters, known as extremophiles:

"I found one extremophile in penguin guano," recalls expedition leader Richard Hoover. "When I stooped to pick it up, Jim Lovell, my research partner then, said, 'What the heck are you doing now, Richard?' But it paid off."

Here's the full story:

Extremophile Hunt Begins In Strange Antarctic Lake

Cheers,
-SueVo