About This Lesson
Conan the Bacterium is the playful name given by biologists to an organism whose official moniker is “Deinococcus radiodurans.” D. radiodurans is microscopic, but that doesn’t mean it’s a pushover. It can take heat, cold, long periods of desiccation. In fact, D. radiodurans is so tough that you can’t even kill it with intense radiation—a sure‑kill treatment for most living things.
