Summary:
- Researchers have discovered living microbes inside a 2-billion-year-old rock, providing evidence that life can thrive in some of the oldest and most extreme environments on Earth.
- The rock, found in the Canadian Shield, is a type of basalt that formed from ancient volcanic activity and has remained isolated from the surface for billions of years.
- The discovery suggests that life can persist in deep subsurface environments, even in the absence of sunlight and other typical energy sources, and has implications for the search for life on other planets.