U. Von Stockar et al., Endothermic microbial growth. A calorimetric investigation of an extreme case of entropy-driven microbial growth, PUR A CHEM, 72(10), 2000, pp. 1835-1838
Life is almost always associated with the generation of heat. Thus far, all
chemotrophic life forms that have been studied in calorimeters were found
to be exothermic. Certain literature reports have even cast doubt on the ex
istence of endothermic growth, even though thermodynamic principles do not
rule it out. The present report describes the first experiments demonstrati
ng the actual existence of chemotrophic life forms that take up heat rather
than produce it.