Microbial Multiverse

Diversity is everywhere, from animal and plant populations down to the mix of microbes in a single glass of seawater. Each of these green blobs is a highly diverse microscopic community of bacteria grown from a single seawater sample, feeding on nutrient patches in the lab. Even though they all came from the same starting liquid, the individual colonies have gone their own way, each creating a distinctive pattern of growth. By using high-powered microscopy and genetic analysis to study these miniature ecosystems up close, researchers can start to unpick how individual groups of diverse bacteria interact with each other as their communities develop and grow. Understanding more about the rules governing the formation and evolution of these collectives could shed light on microbial societies in the wider world, including bacterial colonies that are important for the natural environment and those that may be harmful – or helpful – to human health.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

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• Microbial Multiverse: Dropping in on Diversity; A winner in the 2020 Koch Institute Image Awards
• Image by Rachel Soble; The Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering MIT
• Image courtesy of the Koch Institute Image Awards