SUMMARY: Researchers from NASA, the SETI Institute and other institutions are going to study primitive life in a high-altitude lake to help understand what life on Mars could be like. The Licancabur volcano crater lake is located at nearly 6,100 metres in the Andean mountains on the border between Bolivia and Chile, and despite the extreme environment, there is a surprisingly diverse ecosystem in the lake. Microscopic life in the lake has to deal with ultraviolet radiation, cold temperatures, low oxygen and low pressures, and it's come up with the ingenious solutions - life on Mars could employ similar strategies.


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Life is tougher than many expect.