A Community of Ancient Bacteria

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04/17/2009

Apr. 17, 2009

A Community of Ancient Bacteria

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We'll talk with researcher studying a community of bacteria that has been isolated from the surface for millions of years. The bacteria live in subglacial pools beneath Antarctica's Blood Falls on the Taylor Glacier, an iron-rich, anoxic, and extremely saline environment.Writing this week in the journal Science, researchers describe some of the biochemical processes that have allowed the bacteria to survive below the glacier ice, and use the bacteria to look back millions of years to life on a much different planet Earth.

Produced by Annette Heist, Senior Producer

Guests

Jill A. Mikucki
Research Associate, Department of Earth Sciences

Visiting Fellow, The Dickey Center for International Understanding, Institute of Arctic Studies

Dartmouth College

Hanover, New Hampshire

Apr. 17, 2009