"This is potentially the most significant cave discovery in the past ten years or since Lechuguilla," a large but mostly dead cave at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. Hose, a cautious scientist, is ecstatic about the possibilities of the Cueva de Villa Luz. The veils can thrive in complete darkness, and produce sulfuric acid- as strong as battery acid- a degree of acidity rare, if not unique, in nature. Unlike most plants which use photosynthesis, these microbes oxidize sulfur as their source of energy and life. They found that the ugly masses are in fact microbial veils, colonies of microbial life, and found nowhere else in the world. She asked Norman Pace, a microbiologist at the University of California at Berkeley, to help her analyze the material. The truth, Hose found, was much stranger than the odd name or the old myth. They excited her scientific curiosity immediately. These slimy white masses, known only to grow in this cave, were thought to be bacteria, living in a highly acidic, and largely unlit environment. Hose, who first visited the cave last year, studied and collected samples of what some cavers have ingloriously but descriptively called "snot-tites" growing there. In a sense, the scientists are about to prove the truth of the ancient myth. Among the Chol, the story that the cave harbor mythical powers is a long tradition. Hose's team will travel to southern Mexico to delve into the Cueva de Villa Luz, or "The Cave of the Lighted House." This unique cave has been used for centuries by the Mayan people and their descendants the Chol, for religious ceremonies.
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