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The smallest form of life yet?

Nanjundiah, Vidyanand (2000) The smallest form of life yet? In: Journal of Biosciences, 25 (1). pp. 9-10.

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Abstract

Philippa Uwins and co-workers at the University of Queensland, Australia, may have discovered a previously unsuspected form of life (Uwins et al 1998). Because it is so much smaller than a microbe, the creature – if that is in fact what it is – has been christened ‘nanobe’. Nanobes occur as filaments on rocks 3–5 km below the Australian seabed and, at 20 to 150 nm in diameter, are smaller than all known microorganisms(even mycoplasmas are about 300nm). Except that they are so much more tiny, about one-thousandth the volume, their morphology resembles that of Actinomycetes and fungi. If the claim that nanobes are alive is true, this is an astonishing finding and makes one wonder how they might have evolved.

Item Type: Journal Article
Publication: Journal of Biosciences
Publisher: Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information: Copyright of this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Department/Centre: Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited: 07 Feb 2007
Last Modified: 19 Sep 2010 04:15
URI: http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/1799

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