By Isaac Klimasmith ’20 When John Donne proclaimed that “no man is an island”(1), he recognized the connections that bind humanity together. But just as people function socially and spiritually in a world defined by interaction and connection, so do the biological systems within us. The 1,000 species of bacteria that call the human … Read more
by Sam Zuniga-Levy ’19 As fossil fuel reserves decline while atmospheric CO2 levels rise, the search for methods of obtaining sustainable sources of energy continually attracts the spotlight. The two primary criteria for assessing the sustainability of fuels are that they 1) are renewable and 2) produce minimal (if any) greenhouse gas emissions. A recent … Read more
By Hannah Steinberg ’16 Have you ever wondered what bacteria eat? The answer to this question is as diverse as the bacterial kingdom itself. Bacterial species absorb nutrients from their surrounding environments. Many microbes that live in the ground get what they need to survive from organic molecules found in the soil, and the commensal … Read more
During one hot summer a little more than a century ago, the Great Fire of 1910 ripped through and burned over 3 million acres in Montana and Idaho, killing 86 people in its path. Mixed with humans’ natural aversion toward large fires, the Great Fire fueled the ideology that all forest fires in the West … Read more
We are Oliver Goodman, Alexa Boesel, and Fred Cohan from Wesleyan University, and here is our next story for Invisible Life! We all know Death Valley’s Badwater Basin to be a harsh place, covered with a thick layer of salty sediments. What might this salt flat have to do with preserving life? It would seem … Read more
We are Alexa Boesel, Oliver Goodman, and Fred Cohan from Wesleyan University, and here is our next story for Invisible Life! These are exhilarating days for the discovery of bacterial diversity, much like an earlier golden age of biological discovery two centuries ago. In the early 1800’s, European naturalists traveled the globe in search of … Read more
We are Alexa Boesel, Oliver Goodman, and Fred Cohan from Wesleyan University and here is our next story for Invisible Life! Mesquite Flats, an extreme environment that resides just south of the Cottonwood Mountains in Death Valley National Park, is home to hundreds of ephemeral sand dunes that have average crests of just over 130 … Read more
Invisible Life: Life on Mars We are Alexa Boesel, Oliver Goodman, and Fred Cohan from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and here is our next story for Invisible Life. About 34 million miles away from Death Valley National Park roams the Mars Rover Opportunity in search of any indications of life. If there is life on … Read more
By Hannah Steinberg ’16 On Halloween day the number one trending topic on Facebook was “Crook County, Oregon: Teenage Girl Diagnosed With Bubonic Plague.” What is scarier and more holiday-appropriate than this? A young girl in the year 2015 contracted one of history’s deadliest diseases. A bacterium that wiped out a third to half of … Read more
We’re Alexa Boesel and Fred Cohan with our next posting of Invisible Life. Today’s posting comes out of Fred’s research in Death Valley. Fred and his students and collaborators were interested in how environmental differences that seem subtle to us might have a huge impact on the bacteria that can grow there. Their study site … Read more
