Photograph: Susan Pfiffner, University of Tennessee,This piece of sulfide (mainly iron sulfide) rubble was collected from an area along the main Endeavor segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a region of active hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon and Washington. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide,This PDF is available to Subscribers Only.For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.Search for other works by this author on:© 2002 American Institute of Biological Sciences,Beyond Specimens: Research, Education, and Policy,https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052[0326:ICGETI]2.0.CO;2,http://geoweb.princeton.edu/research/geomicrobio/,Receive exclusive offers and updates from Oxford Academic,Copyright © 2020 American Institute of Biological Sciences. Princeton University geologist T. C. Onstott looks on. By Helena Fietz, Anahí Guedes de Mello and Claudia Fonseca. Elia Ben-Ari, Intimate Connections: Geomicrobiologists Explore the Interactions between Biosphere and Geosphere.Pfiffner is part of an interdisciplinary cadre of scientists working in the relatively new and thriving field of geomicrobiology—the study of interactions between microbes and their nonliving surroundings.

They take special precautions to avoid contaminating the samples, some of which are used to inoculate culture media in hopes of growing new microbial species in the laboratory.Princeton University geologist T. C. Onstott leads the large, multi-institution international research team that is studying microbial communities in South African gold mines. Using standard molecular biology approaches, including DNA sequence comparisons and in situ hybridizations, Edwards and her colleagues found evidence on the rocks for the presence not only of sulfide-utilizing microbes but also novel iron-oxidizing microbes, which derive energy from the iron portion of sulfide minerals. If you want to know more or withdraw Yeah, yeah, I get it ... intimate connection ... but seriously, people, this record should be in every record store's used R&B section. Just an expression of this universe The bacterium they tested.The two-year-long field experiment with strain HK44, which was done in contained, in-ground reactors (lysimeters) filled with PAH-contaminated soil, showed that microbial biosensors hold promise for detecting environmental contaminant bioavailability and monitoring and controlling the progress of remediation in situ. Back in the laboratory, they use the varied tools of their trades—including molecular genetic techniques, innovative culture methods, and chemical and isotopic analyses—to extract new knowledge from the samples they've collected.Such investigations are uncovering microbial species that make their homes in environments previously thought to be inhospitable to life; revealing new roles for microbes in fundamental Earth processes; providing insights on microorganisms that may prove useful in environmental remediation, biotechnology, and industrial processes; and yielding new clues about the coevolution of the biosphere and the geosphere.In steep, often low-ceilinged mine passages extending more than 3 kilometers below the earth's surface, where rock temperatures reach 60°C (140°F) and the air pressure is twice that at the earth's surface, Pfiffner and her colleagues collect air and water samples and drill out rock samples from the walls. Since then, investigators, including Onstott, have shown that subsurface microorganisms—both bacteria and Archaea—are present in geologic settings extending to a depth of 2–3 kilometers.Onstott recognized that South Africa's ultradeep mines provide a unique window into the subsurface biosphere. Pfiffner and her colleague Aaron Peacock use an approach known as phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, developed by CBA chief David White, to learn about the viability and nutritional status of microbes in the samples and to get a general idea of the types of organisms that are present. Photograph: Katrina Edwards, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,These scanning electron micrographs provide a close-up view of hydrous ferric iron minerals forming at the surface of sulfide-containing rock samples “incubated” by researchers at hydrothermal vent regions on the sea floor. 147 likes. David D. Burns. making intimate connections In order to READ Online or Download Making Intimate Connections ebooks in PDF, ePUB, Tuebl and Mobi format, you need to create a FREE account. But in 1987, researchers working at the DOE's Savannah River facility in South Carolina developed methods to minimize microbial contamination of core samples and provided convincing evidence that diverse microbes live in the pores of rocks as far as 400 meters below ground. The magnified image at right shows the huge accumulations of bacterially produced iron oxides that formed within the pores. The problems may be attributable to difficulty in reproducing in the laboratory the unusual environmental conditions of the mines, or to low abundance or slow growth rates of microbes. Elia Ben-Ari Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic. with the precise mentality that surreptitiously and relentlessly impedes social progress.kradomice i nemilosrdno spreèava dru¹tveni razvoj.and required to achieve