What kind of bacterial mat is in the insulation room at Ginnie?

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Originally Posted by wingman

Yes we did some work on that. We collected samples of the biofilm in the insulation room and using a 250mL sample examined fragments for bacterial, fungal, archaeal, and algal species using the automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) that amplifies the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region or so I have been informed. This allows detection down to the species and sometimes the strain level. We ended up with 5 DNA samples that were extracted using a phenol-chloroform process and analyzed spectrophotometrically for purity and DNA quality. The DNA samples were amplified using a PCR (polymerase chain reaction). The samples were then further processed and loaded onto an ABI DNA sequencer and run according to the ARISA protocol. In each sample algae and bacteria were present and in a majority of the samples there was evidence for fungi. There were also indications of Archea results and most probably new species but that is not that unusual. So the insulation is a microbial community of algae, fungi, bacteria, and archaea bacteria. As a side note I have observed what appears to be this same biofilm in spots in the Ginnie Springs cavern. Bill

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I understood some of those words

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Originally Posted by OFG-1

Are you saying that MikeT's mouth is larger in scale than the insulation room?

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That appears to be an unintended consequence of my re-expression of our findings on the biofilm. I probably should have, alternatively, discussed the biofilm that grows inside the breathing loop of a rebreather if not cleaned properly...one of downsides to rebreather diving in my opinion. The other is that it can, without warning, render you unconscious and incapable of self rescue, or so the sticker on my meg head proclaims, it is always sobering to read that while sticking the head into the can (;

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Originally Posted by FW

I like the video "Technical Specifications for Evolution Snow Bikes" better.

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You must have missed the "Fat girls vs skinny girls."

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Originally Posted by wingman

That appears to be an unintended consequence of my re-expression of our findings on the biofilm. I probably should have, alternatively, discussed the biofilm that grows inside the breathing loop of a rebreather if not cleaned properly...one of downsides to rebreather diving in my opinion. The other is that it can, without warning, render you unconscious and incapable of self rescue, or so the sticker on my meg head proclaims, it is always sobering to read that while sticking the head into the can (;

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I removed that sticker, I feel much safer now. ;-)

Interesting biology. What does it use as a food source/energy input? It's obviously not photosynthetic, is there some kind of symbiosis taking place between the bacteria, fungi and algae, is the algae growing heterotrophically?

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Originally Posted by wingman

it is always sobering to read that while sticking the head into the can (;

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Whenever my head is in the can it's usually beacuse I'm not sober, caused by one of the products of yeast growth, and there is no warning label....

Here's a paper that discusses some of that:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ature08883.pdf

Awesome article, thanks.....

My daughter uses those words. Most of the time I look up and say OK repeat In format that a high school grad might understand. Her usual answer is you want it dumbed down.


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