Now I need a navigation system

There is no way my brain can come up with a coherent blog post, so I present you with the following video. As many of you know, I loves me some Star Wars and that love is persuading me to make a purchase that I do not need. Plus, this video is fracking funny.

Microbe Monday: Way cooler than an ant farm.

As a child, I did not own an ant farm. I thought they were pretty cool, but there was something about keeping a colony of ants in the house that just didn't sit to well with my mother. I did own Sea Monkeys, but I accidentally boiled them to death in the window.* Anyway, I think I found something even more cool than an ant farm or sea monkeys. While perusing the ASM website, I decided to check out the 2009 Editor's Choice Award Winners, where I found the video: "Mud and Microbes: A Time-lapse Photographic Exploration of a Sediment Bacterial Community."

Using a combination of time-lapse photography, light, an adaptation of a Winogradsky column, sediment from a pond, finely-shredded paper towels, calcium carbonate and magnesium sulfate, the participants created a simple, yet fascinating way to get a peek at microorganisms in the soil and sediment. The creators of the following video hope that it will serve as a catalyst to discuss microbial ecology and microorganism dynamics in the world around us and to increase increase interest in the study of soil microorganisms in nutrient cycling.

The video is composed of stills taken over the 40 day experiment and the progression clearly demonstrates how phototropic microbes with differing metabolic capabilities respond to the nutrients and light.

In a longer version of the video the narrator informs us that the bottom area of the plates become anaerobic, favoring reducing conditions where sulfate-reducing and cellulose-degrading bacteria proliferate. The black color is iron sulfide. (Note: the shredded paper towels are located in the bottom of the "mud column.") He goes on to describe that the pink/purple areas near the bottom are likely populated by purple, nonsulfur proteobacteria, the green patches likely represent green and purple sulfur proteobacteria, while the green at the very top is most likely green algae and/or cyanobacteria. It is important to note that the bacteria from this experiment were not isolated or typed and these descriptions are just best guesses.

Anyway. I kinda want to make one of these, take samples and look at them under the scope.

*Portions of the Sea Monkey "aquarium" contained magnifying glass that would enlarge the Sea Monkey as it swam by, allowing one to see that the tiny things swimming around in that container didn't actually look like monkeys. Sun, water and magnifying glass is apparently a deadly combination for a Sea Monkey.

Complete description of the methods and materials used.

Authors

Michael Lemke

Microbial Ecology

University of Illinois at Springfield

Springfield, IL 62701

USA

Email: mlemk1@uis.edu

Roza George

Department of Microbiology

University of Georgia

Keith Miller

Department of Computer Science

University of Illinois at Springfield

Springfield, IL 62703-507 References: 1. Charlton, P. J., J. E. McGrath, and C. G. Harfoot. 1997. The Winogradsky plate, a convenient and efficient method for enrichment of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria. J. Microbiol. Methods 30:161–163. 2. Couger, G. 2002. Habitat for lab specimens and other uses for common household items.http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artaug02/gchabitat.htm. 3. Rogan, B., M. Lemke, M. Levandowsky, and T. Gorrell. 2005. Exploring the sulfur nutrient cycle using the Winogradsky column. Am. Biol. Teacher67:279–287. Music. Barbara Schubert and theUniversity of Chicago Orchestra performed Richard Straus’s Also Sprach Zarathurstra,http://www.archive.org/details/uso20000527. Creative Commons license: attribution, noncommercial, no derivative works.

Even better than jumbo shrimp

What could this be? A giant amoeba a.k.a. Gromia sphaerica. (I wanted to blog about this earlier, but I've been chained to the bench.)

Mikhail “Misha” Matz, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, discovered this amoeba species while in the Bahamas.* Previously, this species had only been located in the Arabian Sea. 

What is so cool about G. sphaerica?
1. It is the size of a grape. A FREAKING GRAPE people.
2. It leaves a trail. It is hypothesized that while rolling along the ocean floor G. sphaerica pick up sediment in front and then discharge the sediment in the back, subsequently leaving trails. 
3. Ancestors of this "sea grape" may be responsible for fossil tracks present in "ancient mud." According to the New Scientist article, some of the tracks predate the evolution of multicellular life, making an ancient large protozoan a possible candidate.
4. Did I mention that it is the size of a grape? I am completely fascinated and I am pretty sure that I need one. What? People keep fish. I want a sea grape!

I highly recommend checking out the paper. There pictures are great. It looks like there are herds of these amoebas moving along the floor. 

*Yes, while the rest of us were toiling away in the lab, surrounded by concrete and foul chemicals, this lucky bastard was in the Bahamas .

Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.10.028)

The New Scientist