Need extreme help

[Professor Marvel]

I am interested in doing hands-on amateur level research with Extremophiles. Does anybody have any experience in this area, or know of a website I can visit to leach some information? I’m not interested in anything that requires exotic laboratory equipment or travel to strange and distant lands. Just something that can be done in a reasonably well equipped home lab with relatively common critters like tardigrades or protozoa.

Several years ago NASA had a program they called “Life at the Edge” which was designed for High School level classrooms. I’ve got a few NASA inquiries in the mill but so far the response doesn’t look encouraging. The program is now defunct and doesn’t seem to have left a lasting impression on anybody.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[spuriousmonkey]

extremophiles...doesn't that term alone indicate unusual conditions? Special equipment? Special locations?

Had a girlfriend researcher once who researched them. She would get her stuff from those deep sea submarines.

 

[Professor Marvel]

Sorta, kinda, but not necessarily.

Extreme conditions can sometimes be created within normal surroundings. For example: Tardigrades (microscopic creatures found in ordinary moss) have this great ability to go into “suspended animation” when dried out. I intend to put one in a well slide … let it dry out … add water to “revive” it … and repeat the procedure over and over to see if there is a finite number of times the critter can go through the process before it “dies”. Minimal equipment, lotsa patience. Those are the kinds of ideas I’m looking for.

 

[Billy T]

For example: Tardigrades (microscopic creatures found in ordinary moss) have this great ability to go into “suspended animation” when dried out. ...

Brine shrimp can also do this. They are small but easily visible to the unaidded eye. Some times sold as "sea monkeys" as they dart/jump around in their tank. May be able to buy in your local tropical fish store as they are live fish food.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Sorry, but as the Sham Simian intimated above, you haven’t got a hope in hell of studying such difficult bacteria in any sort of “home lab”. Microbiology requires all sorts of specialist equipment and reagents just for “routine” bacteria, let alone for archaebacteria.<P>

 

[Professor Marvel]

I am aware of the difficulty of studying bacteria, that’s why I did not mention them in my initial post. I was hoping that someone would know of simple experiments involving (let’s say) protozoa that have the ability to encyst, mold spores and their resistance to freezing, etc.

I’m not looking to do “cutting edge” research here; just some empirical studies to satisfy my urge to learn more about the world first-hand.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Oh, I see. As I understand it the term “extremophiles” is nearly always used in reference to the archaebacteria. But now I see you are using a more literal definition of the term to include any organism that can withstand ‘extreme’ conditions. Cool!

Your tardigrades example sounds interesting. It seems to me that whatever organism you choose to study, your biggest problem will be quantitatively assaying their viability after treatment. Simply looking for movement under a low-power microscope may not be sufficient. If plant seeds are the test organism, then germination is a relatively simple viability assay.

-- A tardigrade<P>

 

[Professor Marvel]

Exactly.

Things can get awfully complicated when you also consider the effect of things like: time between drying cycles, feeding levels, etc. That’s why I was wondering if anybody had been down that road and how they handled it.

The seed/plant idea is an excellent one, but boring! Sorry, but I’ve got a decent microscope and would rather ogle an amoeba.

Thanks for responding and for the pic. It’s no wonder they are also known as water bears.