Scalding hot

摘要

Heat is a major challenge for life. On land, too much heat means that water evaporates or boils away, and without water nothing can survive. That is obviously not a problem under the sea. Temperatures can reach 400 ℃ in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where water is heated by the Earth's interior. The upper temperature limit that organisms can endure becomes the point at which complex molecules, like DNA and proteins, start to break down; the surfeit of energy literally shakes apart their chemical bonds.