George Fox
(1945-)
George E. Fox is an astrobiologist and Professor Emeritus and researcher at the University of Houston. A student of
Carl Woese, together they identified in 1977 a third biological kingdom, the
archea
Archaea are often similar to bacteria in size and shape, and archaea still generally refers specifically to prokaryotic members of Archaea
But archaea possess genes and several metabolic pathways that are more closely related to those of eukaryotes, notably for the enzymes involved in transcription and translation. The first observed archaea were extremophiles, living in extreme environments such as hot springs and salt lakes with no other organisms. Improved molecular detection tools has led to the discovery of archaea in almost every habitat,
Archaea are particularly numerous in the oceans, and the archaea in plankton may be one of the most abundant groups of organisms on the planet.
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