Illustration

Depiction of a tiny pore in the crystalline shell of an ammonia-eating archaea microbe

Artist's depiction of a tiny pore in an archaea's crystalline shell

An artist’s depiction of a tiny pore in the crystalline shell of an ammonia-eating archaea microbe; surrounding proteins are shown in blue. The pore’s negative charge attracts ammonium ions from the environment, which interact with an enzyme complex (yellow) to produce all the energy the microbe requires. 

Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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Tiny pores in the shells of archaea microbes attract ammonium ions that are their sole source of energy, allowing them to thrive where this food is so scarce that scientists can’t even detect it.

Artist's depiction of a tiny pore in an archaea's crystalline shell
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