One of the most extreme ecosystems but beautiful hot springs in the planet are in New Zealand. Often as salty as the ocean, the water can have a pH value exceeding ten and can touch temperatures of up to ninety degrees Celsius, making it impossible for many living beings to exist in these areas.

Extremophiles, tiny bacteria, have been found to thrive in these wates, using mechanism to survive in these conditions. The iconic colours of the springs are provided by the pigment in the bacteria.

Jamie Morton wrote in the New Zealand Herald that the Thermus aquatics bacteria in Yellowstone National Park contains an enzyme that can effectively 'photocopy' DNA, a Nobel Prize-winning discovery which is now being used in one of the most important tools in molecular biology.

A new project called 1,000 Springs is being taken up by the University of Waikato and GNS Science, New Zealand's Science Organization, that is going to look for extremophiles in the southern hemisphere by searching for 1,000 untouched hot springs in North Island in New Zealand. This is the first project being undertaken to study extremophiles, which are one thousandth of a millimetre in diameter.

Dr. Matthew Stott of GNS Science said, "There's a multitude of things you could find from these micro-organisms. You can use micro-organisms to break down cellulose in order to make ethanol for biofuels, or in medicine, you could find micro-organisms that generate anti-microbial agents, which could be used as thermo-stable antibiotics."

The hot springs are being sampled with specially designed poles and flasks that can remain unaffected by the high temperatures. The water will then be filtered out to capture the microorganisms, whose DNA will be extracted.

Scott explaned that they can identify about 70,000 micro-organisms per sample - that's something they've never been able to do before, and it allows them to make all kinds of hypotheses and ecological inferences.