Have you heard about the Earth Microbiome Project?  Led by the laboratories of Jack Gilbert from Argonne National Labs along with Folker Meyer (Argonne), Janet Jansson (LBNL), Rob Knight (University of Colorado), this is a pioneering effort to characterize the global microbial taxonomic and functional diversity from samples collected all over the world. 
Similar to the Human Microbiome Project, the Earth Microbiome Project [...]

As the U.S. struggles with the after effects of the oil spill on tourism, animal health, and food safety due to the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, microbiologists are stuggling to determine the scope of damage to microbial diversity in the ocean water and sediment.
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20th, 2010 that resulted in the [...]

 Oak Ridge, Tennessee is famously known as the base of the Manhattan Project in the 1940’s which ultimately led to the development of the atomic bomb. Uranium enrichment activities on the Oak Ridge Reservation in the 1940s until the 1980s led to substantial contamination in nearby ponds that were used to dump waste. Since then [...]

This month we’re exploring the role that undergraduate scientists play in advancing research.  Dr. Karen Bernd, Associate Professor at Davidson College leads undergraduate searches for the deadly Chytrid fungus in the Western Piedmont region of North Carolina. We had a chance to speak with her in-depth on her research project and how she works to [...]