On Wed, 27 Mar 2002 14:04:50 -0600, "Em"
<ekhatipoREMOVE at midway.uchicagoREMOVE.edu> wrote:
>There is amother important issue that I believe should be considered, namely
>pressure at the sea bed. Water is not boiling at 400C down there simply
>because the pressure is too high.
that is true.
>In respect to boiling point, the 400C
>corrected to high pressure is in fact around 70-80C. That is why most
>thermophiles have in lab conditions temperature optimum ~70C.
No. That is not how pressure affects growth. Pressure may affect
growth, but not thru its effect on the boiling point.
Thermophiles isolated from hot springs (at P = 1 atm) and thermopiles
isolated from deep sea vents (high P) have approx the same T-max.
(There are some vent organisms that can grow at T > 100 deg, because
the high P keeps the water in the liquid form. The current record high
T for bacterial growth is, I believe, 113 C.)
bob
