Astrobiology is the science that seeks to understand the story of life in our universe.
Astrobiology includes investigation of the conditions that are necessary for life to emerge …

The Atacama Desert of northern Chile is the oldest and most arid nonpolar environment on
Earth. It is a coastal desert covering approximately 180,000 km2, and together with the …

Soil provides a multitude of services that are essential to a healthily functioning biosphere
and continuity of the human race, such as feeding the growing human population and the …

Abstract Background The Atacama Desert is one of the driest deserts in the world and its
soil, with extremely low moisture, organic carbon content, and oxidizing conditions, is …

Cyanobacteria are ecologically versatile microorganisms inhabiting most environments,
ranging from marine systems to arid deserts. Although they possess several pathways for …

Several studies have demonstrated the relevance of endophytic bacteria on the growth and
fitness of agriculturally-relevant plants. To our knowledge, however, little information is …

Identifying unequivocal signs of life on Mars is one of the most important objectives for
sending missions to the red planet. Here we report Red Stone, a 163-100 My alluvial fan …

The Atacama Desert is by far the driest and oldest desert on Earth, showing a unique
combination of environmental extremes (extreme dryness, the highest UV radiation levels on …

The Atacama Desert, located in northern Chile, is the driest and oldest Desert on Earth.
Research aimed at the understanding of this unique habitat and its diverse microbial …

This article reviews current knowledge on microbial communities inhabiting endolithic
habitats in the arid and hyper-arid regions of our planet. In these extremely dry …