Mike Adams is probably the only researcher in North America growing microbes that can flatten cinder-block walls. He doesn’t like you to confuse them with ordinary life. Let me call them organisms, he says. They’re not really bacteria. But they do have some nasty habits, a product no doubt of their bad environment. Most of them originally came from hot springs at the bottom of the ocean--spectacular smoking, sulfur- rich caldrons where pressurized water shoots from volcanic vents at temperatures as high as 700 degrees.
As you step inside the room where these tough little creatures grow, a strong metal door slams impressively shut. Cinder-block walls and a plain cement floor add bunkerlike touches. The incubating tank--a brand-new 120-gallon fermenter, freshly painted blue--looks sturdy enough for deep- sea diving. No one works near it while the microbes grow. A bundle of wires leads from the incubator to a sealed-off, computerized ...
