Hudson Freeze
Appearances
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Well, let's see. I was born in a small railroad town in Indiana. And as a junior in high school, I spent some time at Indiana University. It's thrilling, you know, for somebody who hasn't seen more than a two-story building before. This was a big deal. And I met faculty people there.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And so when he graduated from high school... I came back to Indiana University and I was able to get in the bacteriology department. And he really wanted to work with one scientist named Dr. Thomas Brock. I had heard him give a lecture before about mating types in yeast. And, you know, anytime you're talking about mating types in college, you know, you're going to be a hit.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
We're here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And from there on out... I would say every biotechnology company in the world... Every lab anywhere that's studying DNA... Has to use PCR.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And so anyway, I go down to see him thinking I'm going to work on mating types. And he says, well, we're not working on mating types anymore, but we are going to Yellowstone National Park to look into the hot springs for bacteria.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
I realized it was a critical component and that that was sort of payoff in itself.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
It's really, really beautiful work. It took a long time before I was able to use TAC and, you know, really make a difference for individuals and keep people alive that likely would have died. It's funny how 1966 was a real turning point.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
That's right. And so he had a small, relatively small grant in basic science. A grant of $80,000 from the U.S. government. To go out and see what he could find.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And I thought, that's perfect. You know, I had done before it was Mars and it's cold there. You know, now I'm going to go to the complete opposite. I'm going to go where it's boiling hot.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Because I had never been west of Chicago. So he hops on a train. I got on in Garrett, Indiana, and then went through Chicago. That's where I picked up the train that went nonstop.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
I said, boy, those are funny-looking clouds. Oh, my God, those are not clouds, man. They're mountains. They're real mountains. It's just like mountains that you see in the cowboy shoes. You know, I mean, I was just, I was really thrilled to be able to see this kind of stuff. Oh, I'm really getting out there. So, I mean, it was just a great trip.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
So I get off in Billings, Montana, and take a bus to West Yellowstone. That's where the lab was set up in this little cabin, you know, a kitchen and sort of a living room. But it was sparse. You know, you wouldn't advertise it as a lab in these days. It looked more like, you know, where Ted Kaczynski might hang out.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
It was a shack. Yeah. Anyway, Brock and his crew. You know, we get going at about 7 o'clock, something like that.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Yeah. You start out more yellowish and then the orange would start coming through.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And... We would take these glass slides that had nothing on them, put them in the spring. So if there were any organisms that were bubbling up out of the interior of the earth, they might be able to attach.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Hudson Freeze. Dr. Freeze. You know, there have been a lot of comments on that. What's Freeze doing working on hot stuff, right?
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
So every day I would go in there and I'd look to see if there was anything that looked like it might be growing.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Always looking for a change in the soup. If bacteria were growing, it would be cloudy. It might even start to smell a little bit.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
I couldn't find anything. And then on the fourth, maybe fifth day, September 19th, 1966. He picks up one of the vials. I just tapped it with my finger, and there was all this swirly stuff that came up. I mean, it looked like diamonds kind of running around. It was like all around inside the tube. And I thought, oh, my God, maybe this is it.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And I said, I said, oh my God, I am the first person in the world ever to see this. The next day, I'm telling everybody in the lab what I'm telling Tom Brock. And one of the guys in the lab says, well, I think we ought to call it Hedsonii freesiensis.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
I'm going around the labs. It is the dawning of the age of Aquaticus. Age of Aquaticus.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
I mean, that's why we can't go out and, you know, sit at 180 degrees because our proteins fall apart. Our enzymes fall apart.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Yeah. You know, this was the thing that led us to say, well, what if you go down 5,000 feet under the sea where we know there are volcanoes down there? Boy, I'll bet nothing lives down there. Well, yes, it does.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
Yeah. Life will still continue to exist as long as you have liquid water. That, if I had to pick anything, is really the sort of lesson of this. Life will exist anywhere where there's nutrients. It will go any place where it can find energy to use energy to grow. I'm going to quote Jeff Goldblum here. Life finds a way. Life finds a way.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
And he's like, no. It has no use. It has absolutely no use. You know, it's curiosity. I mean, it's science for science's sake. It's fundamental research. That's the way science goes.
Radiolab
The Age of Aquaticus
He said, this is like this. And I want to talk to you about a science prize. And I thought, oh, my God, it's the prize patrol. If I sign up for, you know, Scientific American for six years at this bargain rate, I'm going to get a, you know, something in the mail.