Microscopic Adventures

Behold, The Mighty Water Bear!

Tardigrades, aka Water Bears, are a type of extremophile, a name that’s well-deserved. Tardigrades are able to go into what’s called a ‘tun state’ where they become virtually invincible. They’ve survived the vacuum of space and extreme radiation, they’ve been dried out and resurrected decades later, they handle boiling temperatures and deep freezing down to 1 degree Kelvin (molecular motion stops at 0 degree Kelvin) and they’ve managed to look adorable and cuddly while doing it! Basically, Water Bears are the most badass microorganism around. Don’t mess with Water Bears.

I was lucky enough to find a log full of termites behind my house. You know what that means? Gut protists!

Termites can’t actually digest wood for themselves, so they form symbiotic relationships with protists and bacteria to help break down the wood for them

I squished a termite under a slide and saw all these flagellates come out. These unicellular creatures make up a third of the body weight of termites, and I’m lucky enough to be studying them as a lab intern

Cross Section of Human Hair @ 400x

Just like any form of life, microbes need energy. To get it, they consume molecules they come into contact with for sustenance. No metabolism is perfect, though, and even the smallest meals produce waste products, a process known as fermentation. A microbe’s trash can be a treasure to us, though—these waste molecules are key ingredients in the fermented foods and drinks that are cornerstones of cuisine around the world.

Fermentation works by feeding sugars to microbes like yeast, a fungus, or a bacteria such as Lactobacillus. The two types of microbes have different means of processing the carbohydrates they dine on. For bacteria, the end product of fermenting sugar is a simple molecule called lactic acid, a weak acid with a rather sour taste. Yeast, one the other hand, produces a molecule called ethanol, the inebriating agent in alcohol. Humans figured out early on that both of these waste products could create tasty dishes while also helping food keep longer, as demonstrated in the three recipes below.

Pickling

Fermenting vegetable matter with bacteria (specifically strains of Lactobacillus) produces sour-flavored, long-lasting treats. Better known as “pickling,” this process is used in cuisines all around the world to crafts foods from kosher dills to kimchi. The process is thought to have originated thousands of years ago in Egyptian society. 

Beer

Fermenting grains or fruits with yeast is a tradition at least as old as pickling, and one that’s also known around the world. Luckily for folks who enjoy a beer or glass of wine with dinner, yeast converts sugars into alcohol instead of lactic acid. While the two substances have similar chemical formulas (lactic acid consists of  six hydrogen molecules, teamed with three carbon and three oxygen atoms, while alcohol binds six hydrogen atoms to a pair of carbon atoms and a single oxygen atom) they do very different things when they come in contact with our bodies and communicate with our brains—hence the difference between sour-tasting pickles and inebriating beer.

Sourdough Bread

But what happens when a concoction combines Lactobacillusand yeast? Sourdough bread is a good example of this forced symbiosis. Bakers have taken advantage of a wide array ofLactobacillus species and their close relatives to produce three kinds of sourdough bread. The lactic acid from the bacteria and carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation of yeast give this bread its distinctive tangy taste and fluffy texture. The fermentation process also converts the linoleic acid in bread flour into fatty acids that resist the growth of mold and help the loaf stay edible longer, a quality that made this food a favorite among gold surveyors in California. In addition, the presence of yeast means that sourdough freshly out of the oven will have some alcohol in it, although this content evaporates as time goes by.

Learn more about microbes in the new exhibition, The Secret World Inside You, now open! 

Happy ‪#‎MicroscopeMonday‬! This is a 2-day-old larva of a parasite called Loxo, maker of “zombie crabs.” Loxo, short for Loxothylacus panopaei, parasitizes mud crabs by hijacking their reproductive systems and forcing them to produce barnacle larvae instead - even if the crab is male! In the Chesapeake Bay, Loxo is considered invasive and may parasitize up to 90 percent of an area’s mud crabs. In Florida, where it is considered native, parasitism rates are lower—usually 10 percent or less. This could mean the Florida crabs have had more time to adapt.

Today marks a very special day for Merismo Microscopy! 

I’ve finally found my first tardigrade! This little guy was found crawling around some algae in a saltwater aquarium. Do you see the little eyes and paws?