Yellowstone Park’s bizarre steam vents and odiferous boiling pools are more than just tourist attractions and geological curiosities. They are home to unique microbes – living organisms that thrive in extreme heat. More than that, they are valuable resources for industries searching for fresh and big profits.

Year by year, Yellowstone’s hot waters are yielding remarkable new microbial specimens with implications for medicine, agriculture and energy, as well as offering clues to the formation of earliest life on Earth and maybe even on Mars. The potential financial windfalls are enormous, as evidenced by one big jackpot.

Full Story: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1686700,00.html