> Home > Hot
Topics > TBI Outreach Highlights
University of Washington Astrobiology Students Join TBI in Yellowstone
|
The Thermal Biology Institute’s most important resource is our scientific
community, composed of faculty, postdoctoral scientists, graduate and undergraduate
students and strong technical support and facilities. TBI takes an active interest
in promoting and assisting tomorrow’s scientists, and to this end TBI
recently hosted a workshop in Yellowstone National Park for graduate students
and faculty members from the University of Washington’s Astrobiology
program.
Over three nights and two days, a group of thirty graduate students and faculty
from the University of Washington toured Yellowstone, learning about thermal
biology and how to recognize bio-signatures in strange and conventionally hostile
environments. TBI faculty members Bill Inskeep and Tim McDermott led tours of
Norris Geyser Basin, detailing their work on the role of microbes in transforming
metals and gases that flow from Yellowstone’s hot springs. They
emphasized how such research is generating information that could be used for
identifying biomarkers useful for recognizing evidence of life (past or present)
on other planets.
TBI’s Mark Young took students to Monument Geyser Basin to tell them about
the viruses that prey on microbes in these environments, and how these ubiquitous
viruses can be used to study their hosts, while MSU faculty member Dave Mogk
explained Yellowstone’s geologic history. During the evening sessions,
TBI scientists Brian Bothner, Martin Lawrence, John Peters, and Trevor Douglas
presented their research in evening sessions.
Professor Bruce Fouke from the University of Illinois was a special guest of
the TBI, brought in to discuss his work in Yellowstone, where he has discovered
that microorganisms play a significant role in the construction of the famous
and instantly recognizable Mammoth terraces. Professor emeritus Richard Castenholz,
from the University of Oregon was also a special guest of the TBI. He
provided both classroom and spring-side lectures about the phototrophic microbial
mats of Octopus Springs, and shared some of the colorful history behind his years
of research in Yellowstone. MSU astronomer Neal Cornish ended the weekend
workshop by taking a look at the big picture, with a presentation on the Big
Bang and the formation of the universe.
The workshop was very successful and, as they left Montana, several of the University
of Washington graduate students were already making plans to return to Yellowstone.
The University of Washington Astrobiology group, along with TBI researchers,
explores Mammoth hot springs.
|
