Panel Discussion, continued...
Q: The question is regarding methane producing microbes and the cross at looking at possible energy source for spacecraft.
ROTHSCHILD: I don't know if anyone is looking at them as a possible energy source. I know there is some interest. There isn't really work going on at NASA Ames Research Center We have our tentacles out in the community all over the place. I think some of the interest there has been in methane-producing microbes is in using these sort of community as a model systems for things that could be alive on Mars.
Q: The question is about a batch of sourdough that this person has. What's making it sour?
GIRARD: I think it's a starter culture, a lactic acid producer like Lactobacillus which is the type of creature that you should have
in yogurt. By the way, sometimes if you look at yogurt under a microscope you may not find Lactobacillus. You may find an organism called Leuconostoc.
It's also another lactic acid producer.These creatures are also found in sauerkraut.
Q: The question is about the fact that the ozone increased UV on Antarctic phytoplankton communities.
ROTHSCHILD: Well, let me start by clarifying an issue that I had actually confused even in my own mind. It's not surprising the way the press reports these things. If you go to the polar regions where there is the seasonal depletion stratospheric ozone which is a fancy way of saying the ozone hole is getting bigger, the amount of UV reaching the surface is still much lower than what we're getting in San Francisco. The big deal is that it's changing for them quite a bit. So these organisms are being exposed to levels they haven't been exposed to in millions of years. However, if you took a nice little hunk of phytoplankton in the Bay here, they would probably think "what's the big deal?" So that's why the interest is studied in the Antarctic is because of the rate of change of these things, not the actual levels. I hope that sort
of in a round about way answers your question.
Q: Does the increase in UV decrease global photosynthesis in the oceans?
ROTHSCHILD: That's right. There are people working on that kind of thing and I don't have a good answer. I don't think--it's one of those things that you can take a jar to what I do -do a little study. Then you can multiply up the answer from half a liter of water up to the whole world. I do that sort of thing, too. That doesn't prove it. It just sort of gives you a ballpark estimate. There is probably some inhibition of photosynthesis but it's
nothing that we should be on the cover of Time Magazine or anything like that.
It's more the fact that it's much faster there that's interesting.
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