Researchers have managed to grow this square bacterium in the laboratory for the first time. The square bacteria was first discovered twenty-five years ago in a salty pond near the ultra-salty Red Sea. To grow it in the lab, the scientists used a culture with the salt concentration of soy sauce. From an article in Nature:
The microbe is also extremely tolerant of magnesium chloride. According to (University of Groningen scientist Henk) Bolhuis, this makes it a model organism for studying what life might be like in extraterrestrial corners of the solar system, such as the magnesium-rich brines on Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede.
