Bacteria are from Mars, women are from Venus

More of the same today; class, dinner, homework, bed.

I have a presentation tomorrow on the salt ponds of San Francisco bay—if you’ve ever flown in to SF, you’ve seen the bright red ponds. These are drying ponds for the commercial production of salt, and when the salt content is between 18-25%, halophytic (salt loving) bacteria thrive. They don’t get sunburned because of their red pigment, which offers protection; it also looks pretty. When the concentration gets higher, salt starts to crystallize.

This environment is of interest because it is thought that it resembles Mars (oceans of water dried out over time, leaving salts behind; lots of UV light because of a thin atmosphere). I have some professors and classmates that are convinced that we’ll find signs of primitive life on Mars, so they hope to use data from SF to help the search. Google Halobacterium or Dunaliella for more information!