https://www.unonoctium.gr/stories/Recent content in Stories on Savvas ParagkamianHugoens.paragamian@gmail.com (Savvas Paragkamian)s.paragamian@gmail.com (Savvas Paragkamian)Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.unonoctium.gr/stories/gourgouthakas-cave/Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000s.paragamian@gmail.com (Savvas Paragkamian)https://www.unonoctium.gr/stories/gourgouthakas-cave/<p>Gourgouthakas Cave descends nearly a thousand meters beneath the surface of Crete — one of the deepest cave systems in Greece. In 2025 we collected samples at successive depth intervals to characterise how microbial communities change with depth, pressure, and the near-total absence of light.</p> <p>What we found challenged some of our assumptions about the limits of microbial life and the energy sources that sustain communities in the deep subsurface. The work is now out as a preprint on bioRxiv.</p>