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Research: Hydrogen fuels Yellowstone microbes in hot springs

Researchers in Colorado say they have found what fuels microbial dwellers of hot springs in Yellowstone National Park — and it isn’t what the rotten-egg smell of the heated pools might suggest.

The team from the University of Colorado at Boulder said the main energy source for microbes is hydrogen — not sulfur.

‘‘You can smell sulfide in the air at Yellowstone, and the accepted idea was that sulfur was the energy source for life in the hot springs,” said John Spear, lead author of the report published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the study, sulfide ‘‘seems to play a minor role.”

By The Associated Press

Full Story: http://helenair.com/articles/2005/01/28/montana/c02012805_01.txt

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