Some of Earth’s most ancient lifeforms can live on hydrogen – and we can learn from their chemical powers

By Pok Man Leung, Research Fellow in Microbiology, Monash University
Chris Greening, Professor, Microbiology, Monash University

Three-quarters of all matter in the universe is made up of hydrogen. The young Earth was also rich in hydrogen, thanks to fierce geological and volcanic activity.

Just as stars burn hydrogen to produce heat and light through nuclear reactions, life emerged by extracting energy from this simple molecule via chemical reactions.

Some of these early life forms were archaea: an enigmatic third form of life only discovered in…

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