Worms

Scientists have recently discovered worms living deep within the Earth-- thousands of feet under the surface, in fact. They had expected to find no life at all that deep, or, at best, bacteria or single cell organisms. In comparison to such things, the tiny worms found are absolutely huge.


The discovery makes finding life on other worlds more plausible. Life deep under the surface of Mars, especially, is given a boost. If these worms can exist so deep within Earth, as the reasoning goes, something similar might exist deep within Mars.


Of course, this discovery is simply the latest in a string in which life has been found in supposedly extreme environments. Virtually everywhere on Earth scientists have looked for life, they've found it-- and sometimes when they haven't been looking for it, life has made itself obvious. The worms, therefore, maybe should not have been such a surprise. They do remind us, however, that we are nowhere near able to define exactly where life might thrive and where it will not.