What does it look like underneath a lake covered with Antarctic ice? McGill University doctoral student and scientific diver Michael Becker shares the view in this New York Times video under Lake Untersee, Antarctica.
In the blog post, he also explains the prep behind keeping the dive safe — note that yellow tether that keeps divers in communication with their team and leads them back to safety — and what they are looking for in the lake sediment: precisely described data and carefully collected samples that help illuminate the history of the lake and its organisms. Brrrrr.
from Scientist at Work.
Every gut microbe has a job to do. Find out who these millions of different microbes are and what their jobs are within the ecosystem that is you, from the wonderful TEDEd. Full lesson here.
jtotheizzoe:
You Are Your Microbes
Sure, you feel human, but that’s only mostly right. In and on your body, you’re outnumbered by ten times when it comes to microbes. And many of them have essential duties that we just couldn’t do by ourselves. Here’s a trip through your microbial inner universe … what we call the “microbiome”.
A lesson by Jessica Green and Karen Guillemin for TEDEducation.
Previously: The family tree of your microbiome, the “kitten microbiome” and more.
And don’t miss this Radiolab episode all about Guts.
Meteorites are the chunks of meteors that have hurtled through Earth’s atmosphere and landed/crashed on the ground. There are three types of meteorites: stone, iron and stony-iron, and once they’re in science labs to be studied, they need to be handled super-carefully. The Smithsonian’s meteorite lab shows us exactly how carefully!
This is a big issue. We study meteorites to learn things about what has happened and is happening outside our own planetary system. If, in the process of that, we end up covering the samples with the detritus of Earth, then the message gets muddled. If you’re studying a meteorite, you want to be reasonably sure that you’re not accidentally studying dust or bacteria from this planet. Clean rooms like the one in this video make it easier to examine these samples in a way that is less destructive.
via BoingBoing.
