The brilliant colors come from microbes that have evolved to thrive in this extreme environment of boiling acid. (This photo is straight from the camera, with no editing. The colors really do look like that. large size)
Synthetic Genomics just finished sampling these waters to try to help unlock their secrets.
And it’s not the first foray. Early in my exploration of nanotechnology, I came across Jonathan Trent and his work with these microbes. He found a peculiar protein that self-assembled in groups of nine into a ring, and then into a sphere, and the spheres would pack together into thin films on a surface. Metals inside the rings could be left behind on a surface when the proteins were boiled off. It seemed like a jump to the future – an ability to create regular arrays of nanoscale structures from the bottom up, long before the semiconductor industry’s top-down approach.
So I wrote in my first article on Transcending Moore’s Law:
“Researchers at NASA Ames are taking self-assembling heat shock
proteins from thermophiles and genetically modifying them so that they
will deposit a regular array of electrodes with a 17nm spacing. This
could be useful for patterned magnetic media in the disk drive
industry or electrodes in a polymer solar cell.”
And my interests shifted to the biological bottom-up path to creating complex systems.
gsikich1, eye.rees, jim.windle, and 14 other people added this photo to their favorites.
paladinsf 36 months ago | reply
as always well done great color and detail all the best bob
msamaclean ©...be back soon!...;-) 36 months ago | reply
One of my fave places in Yellowstone. Aerial shots are the best of these amazing colours! Interesting structure info, too.
Dr DAD (Daniel A D'Auria MD) 36 months ago | reply
Great photo! DNA is the most interesting computer program that we have found to date. We are at least now starting to "scratch the surface" in decoding it. I think Venter's work is fascinating and shows much promise. We may find that his greatest impact may be outside of medicine.
gsikich1 36 months ago | reply
Excellent shot and excellent explanation. When I first saw this I thought you had gone to the Gulf to observe the spill; then I clicked on it and wow. Great experience visiting Yellowstone.
.Janne. 36 months ago | reply
this looks really amazing!
vennettaj ( a bit away ) 36 months ago | reply
this is way pretty..
emperley3 36 months ago | reply
love the colors
restlessthought 36 months ago | reply
always an adventure around hot spot super volcanos.... am taking a class in geology right now, was told that the times between geysers at Yellowstone is lengthening, implying new activity....
Cal Block [deleted] 21 months ago | reply
One of those where you open it on a display bigger than 3 inches across and say, "wow."
jurvetson 3 weeks ago | reply
Thanks y'all. And now it is used in Chapter One of a Mikrobiologi textbook