Elizabeth Halliday, a graduate student in the MIT'WHOI Joint Program, takes samples of sand at Wood Neck Beach in Falmouth, Mass., to analyze in the laboratory. Bacteria that are indicators of fecal contamination can live and grow in beach sand, and the DNA from microbes living within this sand will be used to find out how many indicator bacteria are present.
(Courtesy of Elizabeth Halliday, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)[back]
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