Kiwi scientists have completed a world first in a daring mission inside the crater of Mt Erebus in Antarctica.
They've successfully extracted one of the rarest and oldest living organisms on Earth, which might hold answers to some very current problems.
"This is discovery science at its best, it's really to discover new life under new conditions," said Waikato University professor Craig Carey, who is leading the quest.
SCIENCE
Kiwi scientists complete world-first mission inside Antarctica's Mt Erebus volcano
22/11/2023
Patrick Gower
Kiwi scientists have completed a world first in a daring mission inside the crater of Mt Erebus in Antarctica.
They've successfully extracted one of the rarest and oldest living organisms on Earth, which might hold answers to some very current problems.
"This is discovery science at its best, it's really to discover new life under new conditions," said Waikato University professor Craig Carey, who is leading the quest.
It is an adventure crossed with science.
"It's the southern most active volcano, with an active lava lake in the middle and stromboli and explosions," Carey said.
They need to use oxygen and the mountain floor is hot.
Mt Erebus was known for the Air New Zealand crash in 1979 that killed 257 people.
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This year, it is the scene of one of Aotearoa's most advanced and adventurous scientific expeditions. The scientists are hunting some of the rarest living things on Earth.
"We found organisms that are growing deeper into the tree and that's incredibly exciting because when we do that, we can kind of see where life came from and how it has evolved into what we see today," Carey said.
Microbes are organisms that are too small to be seen without using a microscope and the ones inside Erebus are about as undisturbed as you get. They date back 100,000 years or more.
Source: newshub
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