Vincent Rennie from the Open University studies some of the world’s most incredible organisms; microbes that can survive the extremes of heat, salinity and pH, organisms fittingly called extremophiles. Studying them means travelling to some of the most extreme and seemingly inhospitable environments on the planet, including Dallol, Ethiopia, which holds the record for the highest average temperature for an inhabited location on earth. We talk to him about the problems of searching for life in this incredible area and how new technologies could revolutionise this work.