Almost 300 school pupils will today get a fascinating insight into the extraordinary lifestyles of tiny organisms that thrive in the most inhospitable parts of our planet.
Archaea are one of three types of life on Earth and date back billions of years.
Yet it is the other two types that are perhaps most familiar to us - Eukarya, which are organisms with a nucleus and include plants, humans and animals, and Bacteria such as the superbug MRSA and E. coli.
But now biology students from 13 North-east secondary schools are about to become more informed than most, thanks to a lunchtime lecture at the University of Aberdeen which is being given by Professor Malcolm White of the University of St Andrews.
The scientist – an expert in molecular evolution and DNA repair - will shed more light on these mystery microorganisms which often live in extreme environments like the hypersaline Dead Sea; within hot sulphuric acid, or around the mouths of undersea volcanoes.
Professor White, a graduate of the University of Aberdeen and a former pupil of Aberdeen Grammar School whose family ran the local toy shop the Toy Bazaar, said: "I am looking forward to my visit to Aberdeen and the chance to talk to pupils from all around the North East."
"My lecture will introduce the Archaea, highlighting their seemingly perverse lifestyles, their roles in the environment and global warming, and the surprising insights they have provided into human biology and disease."
Professor Maggie Smith, Chair in Microbiology at the University of Aberdeen, has organised this annual microbiology lecture. She added: "This lecture by Professor Malcolm White will also show students that microbiology is not always about infection.
"The Archaea are important in the health of our planet and possibly of other planets. We will all get a much broader view of the crucial role that microbes play in the environment, and how curiosity driven science can lead researchers to new and fascinating discoveries. "
The lecture Extreme Lifestyles of Distant Cousins: The Weird and Wonderful World of Archaea lecture takes place in the Auditorium of the University's Polwarth Building at 1.30pm.
Pupils attending are from Aberdeen Grammar, Buckie Community High School, Lossiemouth High School and Aboyne, Banchory, Banff, Bankhead, Ellon, Hazlehead, Meldrum, Oldmachar, Turrif and Westhill Academies.