In 2025, scientists discovered thriving microbial life in deadly electric-blue mud from deep-sea mud volcanoes near the Mariana Trench. This caustic serpentinite goo has a bleach-like pH of up to 12.6 and almost no nutrients, yet it hosts extremophilic archaea and bacteria with special cell membranes that resist extreme alkalinity. Powered entirely by serpentinization—a natural […]