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Life

Bacteria may survive temperatures hot enough to melt lead

By Colin Barras

15 June 2018

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens is claimed to be astonishingly resistant to heat

SCIMAT / Science Photo Library

Life can survive inside a furnace heated to more than 400°C. At least, that’s the extraordinary claim being made by one group of researchers. However, others say such an unexpected conclusion will need to be supported by stronger evidence.

Conventional wisdom is that life struggles to survive when the temperature rises. The thermal limit for animal life is . Some forms of bacteria can survive life at temperatures above 100°C, with

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