by Elio — Deep sea hy­drother­mal vents are char­ac­ter­ized by steep phys­i­cal and chem­i­cal gra­di­ents and by the pres­ence of un­usual and fas­ci­nat­ing life forms. Var­ied or­gan­isms grow there: gi­ant tube worms that ex­ploit the me­tab­o­lism of sul­fide-ox­i­diz­ing bac­te­ria, clams, crabs, shrimps, and more. These like their wa­ter tepid. But some ar­chaea pre­fer...