Struck by the way doctors spoke of caverns and streamlines inside the skull, Wilson enlisted two neurologists, a geologist and a caver to expand on the scientific similarities by giving talks on site.

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Barton once crawled for 8 feet within a a 6.5-inch-high space in a cave and is one of only a few certified for the dangerous business of underwater caving. (Six people died in cave-diving accidents last year.) Along with fellow caver Nancy Aulenbach she was featured in the 2001 Imax film Journey Into Amazing Caves, which was narrated by Liam Neeson.

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Caves were thought to be essentially devoid of life until six years ago, when the renowned University of Colorado microbiologist Norman Pace, also an avid caver, discovered a way to identify extremophile microorganisms by cloning and sequencing unique sections of their DNA. Prior to Pace's work biologists had fruitlessly tried to cultivate these microorganisms with traditional lab techniques using nutrient-rich petri dishes.

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