South Korean scientists say they have confirmed the energy-synthesis method a bacterium living at the thermodynamic edge of deep-sea vents uses to survive.

A team led by scientists Lee Jeong-hyeon and Gang Seong-gyun at the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute has confirmed the mechanism the bacterium discovered some 16-hundred-50 meters below sea level uses to produce energy. The study has been published in the latest issue of Nature magazine.

The bacterium, named "thermococcus onnurineus,” was discovered in the ocean depths near Papua New Guinea in 2002.

The team discovered that the bacterium's energy-synthesis mechanism is unlike any other in the natural world.

The team says it is now studying whether it can grow and use the bacterium to produce new and affordable sources of energy.