Beach Bacteria

Megan May, graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, collects specimens off rocks at a beach on Cape Cod, Mass. May has been researching bacteria in the coastal ocean and in sand on beaches that have developed resistance to antibiotics. An influx of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria are getting into the waste stream and ending up in the ocean, where they interact with naturally occuring bacteria in the ocean. May is researching how this phenomenon may be affecting the marine ecosystem—with an eye toward learning whether any changes could have impacts on humans who swim and play on beaches. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)