Coppertop

Coppertops form mats of cells in cracks around hydrothermal vents. Here, they use the sulfur to dissolve the rock, and over many years create elaborate cave systems, sealed off from the outside. In these caves, a Coppertop colony will nearly completely cover the roof and floor of the cave with a sulfuric acid in between. Thanks to the high temperatures and acidic fluid, a Coppertop colony can generate the small amount of energy it requires from the heat, the cells that are receiving this energy are producing some form of food molecule that they then share with the rest of the colony

Life cycle of the Coppertop cell
The coppertop cell begins its life as an endospore, made inside of its parent cell. This endospore helps transfer free electrons from the copper infused cell wall to mitochondria in the cell via conductive nanofilaments that cover its spore coat. When the adult cell dies, the spores are released to be free floating particles into the colonial chamber. During this release period two layers of protective protein, acting as extra insulaton from the heat as well as together having thermoelectric properties, are added to the endospores to cover them and their nanofilaments; The nanofilaments becoming sandwiched between the layers.

The thermal conductivity between the components in an Endospore drastically differs from each other. Although the entire colony is rather hot due to proximity to hydrothermal vents, there is still a "warm" and "cool" side to the hollow inside the colony, this gradient in temperature only increasing in age and size of the group. While the free-floating endospores (now able to play the role of the metabolically dormant caste "thermoplast" in the colony) spends time on the hot side of the chamber in contact with the tiny copper plates of active cells the outer layer of thermoelectric proteins will quickly rise in temperature, while the inner layer heats up more slowly due to having a higher "specific heat capacity". The structure of the outer protein layer will shift at a particular temperature, which in turn makes attachment points available. A third, and quite stable, insulation protein then latches onto the outer layer of the free-floating endospore in order to prevent that component from losing its temperature as quickly as the rest. Once the Endospore is coated with this insulating protein it becomes a functioning Thermoplast.

The Thermoplasts then move to the cold side of the Coppertop colony, releasing excess electric charge generated by the flow of heat between the two protein layers via the Seebeck Effect. The electric charge created across this temperature gradient is transferred by the conductive nanofilaments between the two layers to the copper infused cell wall belonging to Coppertops at the cold side of the colonial chamber, and the spores located there. When the nanofilaments brush along the cell walls, they not only exchange free electrons, but lose the coat of insulating protein as they cool down and their proteins shift in structure again, the temperature gradient disappearing. . Due to Brownian Movement they will then go back to the hot side of the colony chamber to regain a temperature gradient, pick up more free electrons and insulating protein. Eventually, the Thermoplasts lose their protective protein coating, and become sessile adults, adhering to the walls of the colony chamber, and beginning production of their own endospores.

Dispersal
When the output of a vent begins to deplete, the Coppertop colony will send out a massive amount of spores, These spores are ejected by the vent into the ocean. Here, the spores go dormant for long periods of time, until they find a habitat hot enough. Due to temperature in the open waters surrounding the vents the spores have a tendency of forming small clumps. Once these clumps are settled, they are able to use their spore coats as an initial energy source in order to power themselves until the formation of their first chamber.