The world of bacteria: Can we stomach this new discovery?

The study published earlier this month in the journal Nature Astronomy establishing that Escherichia coli (better known as E. coli) and yeast can ‘survive and grow in a 100 per cent H2 atmosphere’ may leave more than a few feeling queasy at the thought.

After all, the first single-celled microorganism has not exactly endeared itself to humans, especially those who have had occasion to experience its effects. Yeast, of course, has its pros and cons. But then scientists look beyond bodily perspectives.

So, this discovery brings hope of ‘life’ — of a kind — being found in ‘super Earths’ (with a mass between two and 10 times that of our own planet) orbiting around their own sun-like stars.


Coming as this bacterial information does at a time when another such rocky, Earth-like exoplanet has been espied in the ‘galactic bulge’ of our own Milky Way, many can be forgiven for now concluding that it may be populated with little green hydrogen-breathing E. coli.

It must be remembered, however, that not all strains of this bacteria are baddies. In fact, most are pretty harmless, with only six pathotypes classified as diarrhoeagenic E. coli. But if and when an interstellar trip to this newly found ‘super Earth’ some 24,700 light years away does materialise, taking along a stash of cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones may be worthwhile.