Science & Technology: There's Life on the Edge ; Tiny Organisms Exist in the Most Extreme Environments, and They May Help Us Generate Power and Clean Up Pollution. Simon Hadlington Reports

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In Phillip Wright's laboratory, there is a large silver cabinet resembling a fashionable fridge. Inside, rows of fluorescent light tubes shine down on ranks of conical flasks containing a bright green, murky fluid. It looks like something Fungus the Bogeyman might enjoy for supper. In fact, this green soup could one day be at the forefront of a new energy economy. Feed it industrial waste, and it can produce hydrogen.

The flasks contain cultures of an organism called a cyanobacterium. It was isolated from a lake in Libya with an exceptionally high concentration of salt. Most organisms would simply pickle in such a powerful brine. This one thrives.

This …