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Here Comes SID

April 27, 2013

Postdoctoral fellow Bill Orsi and microbiologist Ginny Edgcomb assemble the SID-ISMS (Submerged Incubation Device-In Situ Microbial Sampler) in preparation for their cruise to the Mediterranean Sea in late 2010. They and microbiologist Craig Taylor used the instrument to collect microbes from some of the most extreme environments on Earth—brine lakes at the bottom of the sea that are very salty and lack oxygen. Their samples yielded genetic signatures of new species of protists and intriguing clues to how organisms have adapted to survive in such harsh conditions.(Photo by Cherie Winner, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)