
Audio Edition: The Cells That Breathe Two Ways
From The Quanta Podcast by Quanta Magazine
April 30, 2026 · 13 min
About this episode
This episode discusses a unique microbe in Yellowstone that can breathe both oxygen and sulfur simultaneously.
In a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, a microbe does something that life shouldn’t be able to do: It breathes oxygen and sulfur at the same time. The story The Cells That Breathe Two Ways first appeared on Quanta Magazine.
Topics covered
- microbes
- breathing
- sulfur
- oxygen
- Yellowstone National Park
- life processes
Keywords
- microbe
- breathing
- oxygen
- sulfur
- Yellowstone
- life
- Quanta Magazine
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Quanta Magazine
Books & works: The Cells That Breathe Two Ways
Places: Yellowstone National Park
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