http://www.bact.wisc.edu/bact303/b27

• In the 1960s, when scientists began to study the biology of yellowstone national park, they had no prior knowledge of bacteria that could survive at the temperatures of the hot springs at the National Park. They studied and found bacteria that was hyperthermophilic, or over the normal temperature that bacteria thrives at. the temperature of the Hot springs at Yellowstone was too high for other bacteria, but upon further investigation, they found that there was a bacteria they named Thermus Aquaticus that could thrive at hyperthermophilic temperatures.
• Because of the known fact that Hyperthermophilic temperatures have bad effects on the protein and DNA structures of the Bacteria.
• Upon further experimentation, the Thermus Aquaticus Bacteria was found to be able to function at almost boiling water temperatures.
• There are now dozens of known bacteria that are able to survive at hyperthermophilic temperatures, Thermus Aquaticus was the first discovered to be able to survive at such high temperatures.
• Temperature it can survive at- 50-80 C or 122-176 F
• its optimal thriving temperature is 70 C or 158 F

 http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2007/08/17/outdoors/01out_08-15-07.txt

• Invisible to the naked eye
• uses methane, hydrogen gas, and hydrogen sulfide, as apposed to normal bacteria, which use sunlight for energy.
• When Thomas Brock discovered Thermus Aquaticus, he created the nickname known as Taq.
• almost 20 years after Brock discovered Taq, a researcher named Kary Mullis discovered a process called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. Kary Mullis introduced a found enzyme in Thermus Aquaticus that sped up the replication of DNA. Prior to this discovery, DNA replication was much slower because other enzymes could not withstand the heat of which that of Thermus Aquaticus is able to. This process won the Nobel Prize and is still widely used today.
• http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0212089/therm.htm
• Thermus Aquaticus is part of a group called thermophiles
• Thermophiles reproduce by sexual or asexual reproduction
• Found in hot spring water, or geothermal places on the earth, such as heat vents in the ocean
• thermus aquaticus is hard to study, as things such as its heat requirements are hard to provide in a labratory.
• http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/T/thermophile.html
• Thermus Aquaticus is a gram positive bacteria
•  Thermus Aquaticus is a chemotroph, meaning it performs chemosynthesis to obtain food and nutrition.
• Chemosynthesis- the biological conversion of one or more carbon molecules using inorganic molecules to obtain food.