Switched-on Gutenberg Issue 19
No Cute Pets
 
 
 
Crenarchaeota

 
Pyrolobus, Sulfolobus.
We really are all fabulous.
We love the heat.
Acid's a treat.
Your hell would be heaven to us.

Our DNA will not decay.
It wears a basic protein coat,
Like the histones
On chromosomes
In more advanced eukaryotes.

In Yellowstone we rule alone.
No creature could compare with us.
Our prevalence
In thermal vents
Has made the world incredulous.

 


 
 
 
 
Credit: Cox, et al. (2008). "The archaebacterial origin of eukaryotes".
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105 (51): 20356–61.
Copyright 2013, Alissa Bernholc
Alissa Bernholc works as a biostatistician at FHI 360, a global nonprofit human development organization located in Durham, NC. A lover of science, but a klutz in labs, she contents herself by analyzing data, reading about science, and writing science poetry.


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