Electron microscope image of the spherical pyrite crystals formed in experiments with biological magnetite. The diameter of the structures is about five micrometers (thousandths of a millimeter). Credit: Jeremiah Shuster
A team of researchers at the Universities of Tübingen and Göttingen has found that certain minerals with characteristic shapes could indicate the activity of bacteria in hydrothermal vents—or black smokers—in the deep ocean several billion years ago.
