A new bacterium makes energy from light.
Researchers have discovered a new bacterium in Yellowstone National Park's hot springs. It's called Candidatus Chloracidobacterium thermophilum -- Cab. thermophilum to its friends. Plants use light to create energy by means of photosynthesis. Cab. thermophilum makes energy from light. using what its discoverers say is a different kind of photosynthesis, and researchers are eager to figure out exactly how and why it does.
They're more certain -- and more excited -- about what they can learn from Cab. thermophilum.
"Finding a previously unknown, chlorophyll-producing microbe is the
discovery of a lifetime," scientist Don Bryant, one of the people who discovered the microbe, told the Associated Press. "I
wouldn't have been as excited if I had reached into that mat and pulled
out a gold nugget the size of my fist!"
The paper by the people who discovered Cab. thermophilum is published Friday, July 27, in the journal Science. You'll need to be a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to read the paper, or you can pay $10 for 24-hour access.
Artful Science
Microbiology is really the new frontier of science. We're discovering new organisms faster than we can understand them.
There is obviously pressure from industry to derive commercial benefits quickly, and who knows how society at large could be affected by technologies based on microbial talents?
In the broad field of biology, it's kind of funny that so little research is devoted to what amounts to the vast majority of all species (admittedly not the best term when it comes to bacteria) on earth today.