So, here I am blogging from the hospital…
What? Oh, no, I’m fine, it’s just right across the street from where all of my classes are this semester, and they have a fairly decent cheap cafeteria. Plus, if I get this particular table, I can just barely get enough of a signal with my laptop’s external antenna to connect to my college network account.
Last week was spring break. Although I probably SHOULD have spent it drunk and naked, according to common wisdom, I instead spent it trying to catch up on sleep and doing a bit of culturally and educationally enlightening travel.
Aside from yesterday’s trip to the Opera, we managed to get out to visit Lehman Caves. As one might guess, I was hoping I’d get to find out something about the microbiology of the cave (in addition to ogling the impressive mineral stuff.)
As far as the microbiology goes, I was quite disappointed. One of the small books in the visitor’s center mentioned the existence of chemolithoautotrophic bacteria. In one paragraph. The entire content of which I just summarized here. Not even an identification of what kind of bacteria they are. The guide for the cave tour only knew that the bacteria in the cave were “harmless” (well, yeah, I kind of imagined they would be). There were also cyanobacteria happily if slowly growing near the lights, which nobody seemed to know too much about either.
I did get the name of the person responsible for issuing research permits – I’m seriously considering trying to make the cave one of the sites for my Senior Thesis study.
I did some other things, too, but I’ve got to pack up and head for class now. In case anyone besides my immediate family is reading this regularly (please comment if you are!) I will try to post a lot more often now – the last couple of weeks have just been a major distraction.
I was beginning to wonder if you’d fallen in somewhere while collecting bacteria. It sounds like you have been keeping busy, though. Glad to hear you are still there.