Category Archives: Experiments

Extreme Environmental Sampling Wanted

Stopping on the road, I venture over the railing, walking down the embankment. The heat at the waters edge overwhelms me. The smell of salt and bitterness is in the air.

It will be exciting to investigate what microbial communities inhabit these salt flats. Continue reading

Posted in Blogs, Experiments, Microbes, Science / Engineering | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Scientific Sleuthing

At hand I have a set of known microbial metabolic pathways, a pretty good idea of what some of the intermediate and products are, a lot of chemistry knowledge, and a whole slew of really cool high tech tools. Continue reading

Posted in Experiments, Microbes, MIT, Science / Engineering | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Thankful for being able to do what it is that I do …

I get this look of fear and awe when I explain that the things I study grow at 100-200 atmospheres, at temperatures between 50-75 degreed centigrade, and under acidic conditions so extreme it would peel the skin off your bones. Like I said, this is pretty cool stuff Continue reading

Posted in Blogs, Experiments, Microbes, MIT, Science / Engineering | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thermoplasma acidophilum -a model organism to study iron stress in microbes?

How does T. acidophilum manage the high concentrations of soluble iron, or other metals, liberated by its acidic environment? Continue reading

Posted in Blogs, Engineering, Entrepreneur, Experiments, Microbes, Science / Engineering | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Of Chefs and Scientists

a true test of a scientist’s skills are not at the bench, but in how they … increase our understanding and awe of the world around us. Continue reading

Posted in Blogs, Education, Experiments | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

OpenLabWare – demystifying the research process

George S. Zaidan ’08, while an undergraduate at MIT, ran into a conceptual problem while teaching a course for high school students (See The Tech article).  He asked his students to plan an experiment and in the process realized that … Continue reading

Posted in Blogs, Education, Experiments, MIT, Science / Engineering | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Life under high pressure – the setup

It was only recently that we began to understand the capacity of microbes to populate the most inhospitable places on earth.  From the inside of nuclear reactors to highly corrosive sulfur environments, microbes are there.   We have found them … Continue reading

Posted in Blogs, Education, Engineering, Entrepreneur, Experiments, Microbes, MIT, Schools, Science / Engineering | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

I remember the first time I visited the a TED conference (it stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design) website.  Jarrett, a good friend who I blogged about, introduced me to a video from Aubrey de Grey called Why we age … Continue reading

Posted in Blogs, Business, Engineering, Entrepreneur, Experiments, History, Lectures, Science / Engineering | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment