science

Deep underground, plunging 1604ft (489m) beneath the Chihuahuan Desert in southern New Mexico, lies the Lechuguilla Cave, a cavern which stretches on for 149 miles (240km). There is no light, and little to eat either. Any living thing must eke out an existence under conditions of near starvation.

"You can go in an entrance and travel for 16 hours in one direction before you get to the end of it," says Hazel Barton, professor of geological sciences at the University of Alabama.

"So you're a very, very, very long way from the entrance. You're isolated, and there are places in that cave where more people have walked on the moon than have been in that area."

The bacteria also have an even more surprising trick up their sleeve – they are resistant to most antibiotics, despite the fact that they have been trapped in a cave that formed six million years ago, most of which was completely sealed off from humans until 1986. Not only is this resistance a remarkable natural phenomenon, it is now helping guide researchers to drugs that can withstand the onslaught of antimicrobial resistance in modern medicine.