Extremophiles!

Check out this Extreme Extremophile:

This little critter is always blue and MUST wear a blue tie. It eats Antarctic birds only, and survives in the coldest temperatures of Antarctica. Wow - that's cool!

Keep sending in your extremophiles and we will post them as we get them!

Microbe Mobile!

Here is a lovely Microbe Mobile sent to us from NASSA for Week 7:

Week 5 and 6 activities

Hi Microbe-Adopters!

We've received some great core discoveries from our esteemed NASSA group in New York.

Here's a photo of their core:

Lillith Bulawa said this about it: This excavation is really interesting because Lake Delta is a submerged village from a hundred and fifty years ago.  The more I look at this core the more fascinating it gets.  Toward the bottom it gets denser and I believe I am seeing parts of an old vase.  Towards the top it is grainier looking.  I believe this is because over the years many rocks were dumped into the lake as the new town was built next to it.  At the very top there is fine sediment I think are probably fish droppings mixed with algae that came as the lake became a more popular fishing ground.  Those are my observations.

Then they cultured it and this is what they got:

Their comments: The one on the left is from the top of the core tube and the one on the right is from the bottom of the core.  I think the one on the left has more and different microbes growing because it is harder for the microbes to grow as the core gets deeper.

Good work guys and gals!

What else have you adopters discovered? 

Microbe Math Answers!

We received these answers from the Neighborhood After School Academy in New York:
 

1. 999000000 more microbes

2. 13.6842%

3. 24,400 square cm of space needed so everyone could fit

NASSA will be earning a bunch of Adopt a Microbe t-shirts! 

Microbe Poetry is in the house!

We have many budding poets among our Adopters - see some of our Week 4 submissions:

From Karen Miller, for #11  S. loihica   (Marine Bio teacher, South Rowan HS, China Grove, NC, USA)

Happily eating iron and manganese near the vent

Shewanella loihicas near Hawaii seemed so content.

When food became tight,

They got into a fight,

So a move towards the Arctic some underwent.

From Elizabeth Biles & Dylan Bean for #6 M aquaeolei (Marine Bio students, SRHS, China Grove, NC, USA)

As a Marinobacter, I'm a microbe who's versatile,

Living in deep water, but oil wells once in a while.

Iron is what I eat,

Although it isn't meat,

Slimy film and rust I excrete to the nearby pile.

From Brandi Smith & Kyler Sutherland, for #12: Thiomargarita namibiensis (Marine Bio students, SRHS, China Grove, NC, USA)

 

There has never been one so big

It’s not quite the size of a fig

It’s big and round

And easily found

If I found one, its name would be Thig.

From the NASSA group, in honor of photobacterium profundum:

 

A microbe we nicknamed photofun

Living deep in the earth without sun

In hi pressure it plays

Eating carbon all day

The J.R. will research it a ton

More Microbe Photos

We just received a whole new batch of wonderful microbes that Adopters made! See below:

Week 2 Make Your Own Microbe photos!

Congratulations to microbe builders Erick and Beth. They created a hungry microbe that we are highlighting this week. Here is what their microbe looks like. Be sure to email your Weekly Activity photos to JR!