For a long time, microbes like the ones in Yellowstone's hot springs were studied in isolation. Molecular ecologist Devaki Bhaya says we should be studying them in community. Here's why.Help shape the future of Short Wave by taking our survey: npr.org/shortwavesurveyPlus, if you liked this episode, check out our episode on the last universal common ancestor in the tree of life. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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We'll also put the link in our show notes. Thanks. Okay, on to the show. You're listening to shortwave.com. Ask any scientist what it's like to do fieldwork, you know, to venture into the real world and take samples of real things, and you'll get a lot of answers. For some, the environment is full of beauty and wonder and preciousness.
And for others, it's almost really like suddenly entering hell. This is Devaki Bahaya. She's a molecular ecologist and researcher at Carnegie Science. And the environment she's describing is Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The first time she saw these geysers and hot springs, it was a bit of a shock.
It's barren. There's steam coming up. It smells of sulfur. There's boiling mud. I mean, it's what I would think of as being in hell, right? Yeah.
But then she got closer and really looked into the hot springs.
There's all these colors, beautiful colors, dark oranges, bright oranges, greens, olive greens.
Devaki became fascinated by all of these tiny life forms able to withstand these boiling hot conditions. Life forms that are known in the biology world as extremophiles. Microbial extremophiles, so microbes in really intense environments, have long been studied by scientists in isolation, where they take a sample, stick it under a microscope, and see what that microbe eats and what it produces.
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