A strange new ally in the fight to reduce atmospheric carbon: Chonkus

Chonkus is a previously unknown cyanobacterium found in volcanic ocean vents.

If scientists can figure out how to genetically engineer it, this single-celled organism’s natural quirks could become supercharged into a low-waste carbon capture system.

The nonprofit Align to Innovate aims to explore more extreme environments around the world.

Tierney: “There’s no question we’ll keep finding really, really interesting biology in these vents.” Kim noted that out of all the microbes out there, less than 0.01 percent have been studied.

“They don’t represent the true arsenal of microbes that we could potentially work with,” he said.