Earth's surface pressure (985 hPa). After 30 hours, only about 1% of the bacteria survived. The experimenters then added a dye to the solution. If the cells survived the squeezing and were capable of carrying out life processes, specifically breaking down formate, the dye would turn clear. 1.6 GPa is such great pressure that during the experiment the DAC turned the solution into ice-IV, a room-temperature ice. When the bacteria broke down the formate in the ice, liquid pockets would form because of the chemical reaction. The bacteria were also able to cling to the surface of the DAC with their tails. Skeptics debated whether breaking down formate is enough to consider the bacteria living. Art Yayanos, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, believes an organism should only be considered living if it can reproduce. Subsequent results from independent research groups have shown the validity of the 2002 work. This is a significant step that reiterates the need for a new approach to the old problem of studying environmental extremes through experiments. There is practically no debate whether microbial life can survive pressures up to 600 MPa, which has been shown over the last decade or so to be valid through a number of scattered publications. Similar tests were performed with a low-pressure (0.1–600 MPa) diamond anvil cell, which has better imaging quality and signal collection. The studied microbes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast), continued to grow at pressures of 15–50 MPa, and died at 200 MPa. Single crystal X-ray diffraction Good single crystal X-ray diffraction experiments in diamond anvil cells require sample stage to rotate on the vertical axis, omega. Most diamond anvil cells do not feature a large opening that would allow the cell to be rotated to high angles, a 60 degrees opening is considered sufficient for most crystals but larger angles are possible. The first cell to be used for single crystal experiments was designed by a graduate student at the University of Rochester, Leo Merrill. The cell was triangular with beryllium seats that the diamonds were mounted on; the cell was pressurized with screws and guide pins holding everything in place. High-temperature techniques Heating in diamond-anvil cells is typically done by two means, external or internal heating. External heating is defined as heating the anvils and would include a number of resistive heaters that are placed around the diamonds or