heathero
Posts by this author
August 23, 2011
Ever wondered what the bottom of the ocean looks like? Well, now's your chance to check out streaming live HD footage from the ROV ROPOS which is currently working out at Axial Volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Currently they are checking out a brand new lava flow, but later this evening and…
August 12, 2011
Dear Readers,
I have been more absent than usual from this blog, which is something I regret. However, the time constraints of preparing for my upcoming qualifying exam necessitate this. I decided to break my strict "no distractions" policy to bring you this bit of info that was emailed to me by…
June 6, 2011
The arsenic story continues. After much discussion in the blogosphere and elsewhere about the controversial paper claiming to have discovered life that uses arsenic rather than phosphorus in its DNA, Science has published 8 critiques of the paper and a response by the author. You can find them…
May 8, 2011
As many of you are no doubt aware, both mitochondria and chloroplasts are thought to have come to us via microbial endosymbiosis (that is one cell living within another) with prokaryokes. Some photosynthetic bacteria eons ago found itself nestled inside another cell, realized it was a pretty…
April 18, 2011
These days it is very hip to do things eXtreme. Don't believe me? Try googling "extreme". I suppose I have jumped on the bandwagon by studying life in one of the most "extreme" environments on Earth (deep sea hydrothermal vents). The environment I study is home to the most thermally tolerant…
March 9, 2011
... because I love science and I love beer, obviously.
I had a great time moderating Science by The Pint last night! It is always awesome to be reminded how enthusiastic non-scientists often are about science. I find events like this incredibly refreshing when I have been stuck in a science rut…
March 8, 2011
Those of you living in Bosto-Camber-ville* might be interested in attending tonight's Science by the Pint. Our featured speaker is Alex Bradley - the author of the guest post critiquing the Arsenic paper a while back. Come to Tavern in the Square - Porter Square tonight, March 8 at 7pm to chat…
March 2, 2011
Check out this explanation in the New York Times science section of the 5 second rule. For the record, this will not stop me from eating fallen food off the floor. But that's just now I roll.
February 18, 2011
I got to spend last week in sunny California. I forgot how wonderful it is to sit and eat lunch outside! I was participating in a workshop held at the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI). The workshop was entitled Microbial Genomics and Metagenomics. Basically I spent the week…
February 15, 2011
I mentioned this study a while ago, and promised a more detailed explanation. I apologize for how long it has taken, but here it is.
How excited was I to learn that the most recent issue of Nature Geoscience had a special focus on deep sea carbon cycling? I admit it, pretty excited. I was even…
January 24, 2011
A new paper in Science describes the discovery of a fundamentally new carbon cycling pathway in an extreme salt-loving archaea. Check out this summary of the paper for a quick morning microbe fix. I have to read the paper carefully myself before I can really talk about it, but I did want to share…
January 4, 2011
Thanks to Viktor at StrippedScience for letting me borrow his microbe New Year's cartoon!
Happy New Year! I was catching up on my blog reader and came across the NatureNews top science stories of 2010. I was curious how many of these stories would have something to do with microbes... turns out…
December 5, 2010
If you read Alex Bradley's guest post calling into question the claims of the recent Science paper stating the existence of microbes that can substitute arsenic for phosphorus in their DNA you might be wondering what to take away from it all, if the scientists can't even agree on whether the study…
December 5, 2010
In the wake of the NASA excitement over the new arsenic study, and my promise to give a detailed review of the paper itself, I have recruited a colleague with strong opinons about the work, a solid chemistry and microbiology background, and "Dr." in front of his name to share his analysis. I will…
December 2, 2010
Arsenic it is... but the point really isn't arsenic.
That is what Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon stressed at the end of the NASA press conference today - that the research being unveiled is just opening the door to other unexamined possibilities for life. She said "I am interested in exceptions, why…
December 1, 2010
NASA has made a bit of a stir by announcing a press conference for tomorrow at 2pm EST. Scientists are going to reveal some exciting new findings relvent to the search for extraterrestrial life. Some people are anticipating/hoping that they will announce that extraterrestrial life has been…
November 29, 2010
Bioluminescince is amazing. I have seen it first hand barely noticeably in the wake of a ship at night, from a laboratory culture in a large flask, filling a Puerto Rican bay such that every fish darting or rain drop falling glows blue, and most recently in a 2 hour light show viewed through the…
November 10, 2010
Rarely do I read papers whose title really sums up exactly what is so cool about the study in a succinct way, free of jargon. I think that "First Investigation of the Microbiology of the Deepest Layer of Ocean Crust" does just that. It isn't trying to be sexy... it just is!
Examining the…
November 3, 2010
[This post was originally published at webeasties.wordpress.com]
I was trained as an Environmental Scientist long before I was at all interested in Microbes. So, I get excited when I come across microbial studies that are environmentally relevant. I get particularly nerd-cited when these studies…
November 1, 2010
Hi ScienceBlogs... it is GREAT to be here!
I just spent the weekend with many of the scientists whose research has comprised the bulk of my reading material (ie brain-biggering) over the last 1.5 years... yikes! I also got to meet many other young scientists hoping to make a career out of this…
June 20, 2010
[This post was originally published at webeasties.wordpress.com]
A recent paper published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (I have no idea what the B means, but maybe one of you can clarify with a comment) draws an enticing connection between whale excrement and climate change. …