00:00There are three forms of life on Earth, eukaryotes, which include humans and all plants and animal
00:08life, and bacteria, which we're all familiar with.
00:11However, the third, archaea, are another form of single-celled organisms, and scientists
00:16just made a wild discovery involving them.
00:18Experts found nine phyla of these organisms to have produced hydrogen gas enzymes.
00:23What's more, they found evidence that they've been doing so for billions of years.
00:26One of the study's lead authors had this to say about it.
00:29Scientists have only recently begun to think about using hydrogen as a source of energy,
00:33but archaea have been doing it for a billion years, adding that biotechnologists now have
00:37the opportunity to take inspiration from these archaea to produce hydrogen industrially.
00:42This type of process has been seen in other life forms before, however it was only relatively
00:46recently discovered eight years ago.
00:48Now it has been discovered in archaea, a type of life form known for living in extreme environments
00:53like hot springs, around volcanoes, and in deep sea vents.
00:57The researchers say this discovery could not only be useful industrially, it could also
01:01help us understand how all eukaryotes, including humans, came to be in the first place.
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