A researcher has literally grown evidence to suggest the bacterium that causes the potentially-fatal Legionnaires’ disease is more than just a parasite.

Using water tanks, the PhD candidate created a lab-scale air-conditioning cooling tower – an ideal breeding ground for the legionella bacteria – and cultivated the aquatic organism in ideal temperatures to see whether it only ever feeds off a host, as parasites do, or if it can exist outside the environment and gain nutrients from multiple sources.

Discovered in 1976, legionella is a relatively new bacteria yet one that hasn’t been the subject of much scientific research.