Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
CK in garbage bag darkroom, credit Stéphane Hourdez
Viral particles are very small, often less than 200 nm. For perspective, the diameter of a human hair is about 50,000 nm. In the past, the only way to see and count marine viruses was by using a transmission electron microscope (TEM), an expensive and complicated device that uses electrons instead of light to visualize small objects. However, fluorescent dyes have been developed that emit very bright light and these dyes can be used to stain the DNA inside the viral particles. Even though the viral particles are small, the light emitted is bright enough to make them detectable--under a portable fluorescence microscope at 100x magnification, the effect is like counting stars in the night sky. Obviously, the darker the background the easier it is to see the tiny pinpricks of light. This type of work is typically done in a darkroom. Most ships do not have a darkroom. I think you can see where the garbage bag and duct tape come in...they are all you need to construct your own personal darkroom.
Epifluorescence photomicrograph of bacteria (planets), viruses (distant stars) and a pennate diatom (galaxy), credit Jed Fuhrman
To read more about viruses in the deep-sea and how they control the genetic diversity of bacterial communities and carbon cycling, please visit the July 1 daily log from the Deep Slope Expedition 2007
Life Science
Comments
I think that picture (or something similar, I'm sure I have a few on my work computer) needs to be added to my screen saver. That is, if I ever decide to give up on the squids.
Mike
Posted by: MikeG | September 15, 2007 9:46 AM
Well, is this a coincidence, or what? Nature Reviews in Microbiology has just aired a special issue focused on... guess what? Marine Microbiology! Free online access to articles.
Posted by: Cesar Sanchez | September 18, 2007 6:20 AM