Microbes Take Their Sulfur Light
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 - 16:31
in Earth & Climate
Dr. Itay Halevy of the Weizmann Institute and Dr. Boswell Wing of McGill University found that deep-sea microbes that "breathe" sulfur prefer that sulfur to be light. In fact, the microbes will "fractionate" heavier sulfur into lighter isotopes. Learning the preferences of these microbes can help reveal the ancient past ... and predict the future.