This 'fire amoeba' pushes the limit of what's possible for complex life

Angela Oliverio , a microbiologist at Syracuse University, studies the edge of what's possible.

Science These researchers think the sludge in your home may help save the planet "There's a very deep curiosity and desire to understand life at its limits and at its most extreme," she says. "And where that boundary is and what truly are our constraints."

It's not unlike ultra-elite athletes who push themselves "to the absolute max of what we think is humanly possible," she says. "But in this case, we're just expanding it to life more generally" — specifically, microscopic life.