Please explain how an organism might be able to live without boiling at such high temperatures. Hint, recall how a pressure cooker works.

Question

I don't understand how to relate the question to a pressure cooker.

Answer 1

At atmospheric pressure (normal air pressure), water is known to boil at 100°C. So, why can some organisms survive at temperature higher than that, despite being made up mostly of water? The reason is that the boiling point of water increases as the surrounding pressure increases. This is how pressure cookers are able to reach temperatures above 100°C without the water boiling off. So, these high temperature resistant organisms are able to survive because their surrounding pressure prevents the water inside them from boiling off and killing them.