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Asked by Giles to Zarah, Kon, Kirsten, Jena, Freddie on 6 Nov 2016.
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Jennifer Bates answered on 6 Nov 2016:
hmm…Kon might be better placed to answer this as he works directly with bacteria.
But…
I do sometimes find some funky microscopic stuff in my samples, but not quite as small as that, as most bacteria are 0.5-5 micrometers in size, and the smallest things I work on are about 10 micrometers in size. I tend to work on phytoliths, which are glass fossils of plant cells, which can tell us about what plants were growing and therefore about the environment. You can then think about water availability, human use of water, and climate change, and how people reacted during periods of drought for example in the past and consider if it was an effective strategy. Similarly, I often find diatoms, which are single celled algae, which also tell us about water, especially about water conditions, so was it still or saline, was it clean or dirty, so you could think about drinking water safety in wells for example, and therefore human health in the past. I also find pollen, which tells us about the types of plants in the area round a site, and you can think about issues like deforestation, changes in land use as society changes like increase in agriculture and the impact that has.
The microscopic world is fascinating and full of amazing things, and it can be used to address a lot of important issues relating to how we use and have used the world around us. By studying the impact we have had in the past we can think about what impact our actions will have now and in the future.
(also, FYI: the pollen from pine trees looks like mickey mouse!)
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Konstantinos Drousiotis answered on 6 Nov 2016:
Hi Giles,
Thanks for your question! Jen is right, I indeed work solely on bacteria on a daily basis. Only in labs, not good getting too familiar with them 😛
Helping the humanity to excel and grow was one of the reasons that make me wanting to study science; to try and make an impact in people’s lives. However, another reason I wanted to do science is try to help keep our planet able to host us, humans. The project I am undertaking during my PhD, will help make the use of plants as biofuels (more) possible. The main aim of my studies is to find those systems in bacteria that are best suited to find and grab the sugars that are found in the plants to be used to create biofuels. This way the bacteria become super-bacteria able to cut down plants and eat them up and then produce biofuels.
Thus, new methodologies to produce energy lower our addiction as humanity of using non-renewable sources of fuels such as petroleum! Therefore, the planet becomes less polluted, the ozone layer becomes healthier and thicker, less endangered species, more temperature stability and therefore keeping this planet alive and healthy. Even though, it’s not directly helping people that currently are alive, it is about helping the next generations to come.
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