Finding life in a harsh place

Scientist Mak Saito scoops up water on a moraine near the Ross Sea, Antarctica, in February 2009. Saito collected cyanobacteria (photosynthetic bacteria) from this polar environment for culture and analysis of the samples’ proteins. His research focuses on how marine phytoplankton use trace metals, and on developing techniques to study the complement of proteins they produce (proteomics). (Photo by Dawn Moran, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)