Very interesting. Was surprised to get a biology lecture from a Geologist. Made me realize how dependent we are on our biosphere, right down to the level of microbes.
I know right! You have no idea the learning curve I had to go through when I came to grad school and found out just how much biology impacts geology! :D
Isn't her education in some crazy shit like marine isotopic bio-geo-chem-pysics or something? She should just get a meteorology degree and call it a day She has other videos on invertebrates also
@@whatabouttheearth Hahaha you actually nailed my field! I didn't think you guys knew that so well! haha (Well except for the physics part, that I don't do lol) ;)
Thank you for your interest in microbes. Thanks also for your in depth explanation of the different cycles. That was really cool and very interesting! I live in an intensely farmed area of the country. It's mostly huge farms of thousands of acres each. There are no small farms anymore at all around here. They have bulldozed all of the trees, burned them in brush-piles, and now everything is irrigated with center-pivot systems. This leaves the once dark, rich, prairie soil, looking bleached and lifeless. Kind of like the thumbnail for this video. I have said for years that they have killed their soil! I see now in reality that what they have destroyed is their microbes! I hope that one day in the near future, that videos like this will educate the right people and make the changes we need. Thank you again for your videos. I have watched most of them, but this one hit real close to home for me.
Those fields will soon be unproductive. To regenerate them, it will need herds. The soil needs the herds' depositions to regenerate. It will be very hard in the beginning for lack of food and, most likely, water, too. In my country, field-regenerating techniques usually include building a lot of interconnected ponds and dividing fences. For instance, you may need to regenerate100 HA of terrain. Your herd (e.g, sheep) will need to feed from one fenced HA of terrain, but food depletion will make you move the herd to another HA soon, most likely the next day. Each HA needs its own pond, fed with water from the other ponds (via gravity or solar-fed pumps). After 100 days, all the 100 HA production has been consumed by the herd, but the first HA's have grown food again, so the cycle restarts.
I've recently made a point to start intentionally studying the biogeochemical cycles because they are so important to understand the bigger picture of earth systems, but my god it gets complex once you get past the basic mainstream surface level explanations. It really is a good way to learn overlaps in biology (zoology/botany), geology, oceanography, limnology, atmospheric science and chemistry to gain a basic holistic understanding of the earth. ADD slows learning down sometimes, it's like being a moth attracted to any random light that shines, so it's hard to keep focused sometimes, I have to intentionally keep looping back to the same things until the knowledge learned (in my memory) develops further.
Almost a lecture straight out of my microbiology course. Very nicely presented. There are only a couple things I would add. Not only does metabolism fix elements a d make important molecules needed for life systems, it also creates the immediate environment for processes to happen, like set the pH and local aerobic and anaerobic levels that make biochemical processes possible. Since these organisms live in close association one microbes waste products are another's required compounds. Some organisms likewise synthesize coenzyme for whole communities. Really enjoyed the talk.
Hey Rachel, I've got accepted to Geology today. Wanted to share because I like you channel a lot and you are a big inspration. Thanks for being who you are.
I've only watched the outline so far but I can't help but comment that you didn't mention that microbes occupy physical space , are little balloons of water, and completely change the way that water moves through the medium (be it soil, rock, sand, etc.) because they block the flow of water, hold water up where it would normally runoff, things like that. Therefore microbes are responsible for making water available for plants, not because of a chemical process, but because they hold the water where the plants can reach it. Of course the chemical environment is so interesting and important , but so much is just the physical object that a microbe is. (in the same way that a tree provides a physical environment with shade , protection, food sources, )
That is such a great point and important aspect of microbes effect on the global biogeochemical cycles, especially the water cycle! Thank you for mentioning this here in the comments ;D
Thank you for this video. I watch your videos for geology, and geochemistry. I have been an organic chemist for over 40 years. My minor was biochem (I can draw the Calvin cycle in my sleep). I didn't think I would learn anything in this one. As an organic chemist I always dealt with reduced forms of carbon. CO2 to me was just the waste product of metabolism and feedstock of photosynthesis. Your picture, at 11:35 minutes, of a CO2 molecule flying across the water was a revelation to me. I had never thought of CO2 being crucial in transporting carbon atoms around the world. Thanks.
Yes, CO2 transport is an essential part of the carbon cycle! It is unfortunately that most media these days depicts CO2 as a 'bad' thing, when really it is essential and it is only the rate at which we are releasing it that throws the cycle out of balance. But yes, reduced carbon is also incredibly important for life and completes the C cycle ;)
❤ Thanks Rachel. Finally someone that gives some respect to the microorganisms. The place they deserve. An excellent YT video. From your other video's I recall that microbial biochemical affinity to chirality and isotopes are excellent indicators in your research.
Rachel that was brilliantly explained. Agree it couldn’t have been possible to explain in a comment chain. Besides nitrates from nitrogen in the atmosphere, they are the biogeochemical cycles that contribute to other nutrients available to plants. Also, this video is as geological as it can be. Microbes play significant roles in rocks and minerals formation through out Earth’s history. Thank you for explaining all of that, Professor Rachel Phillips 😊
Soil. As in dirt. Rock dust, plus microbial life plus plants equals soil. Soil, the living biome in which nutrients are made available. life has such an amazing relationship with nutrient cycles, not relationship but a part, we are a part of the nutrient cycle. I just feel so deeply connected to the way nutrients and energy flows, and he way life animates itself in different form in accordance the type of chemical process at play. It's hard not to be forced to stop and just wait, admire the amazing way all this has shaped up to be.
Well done Rachel…I learned so much from your discussion. It made me think beyond our earth towards the possibilities of extraterrestrial microbial activity. Are there any outward signs, suggestions or evidence from our planetary system that such activity could exist?
Absolutely! We have identified so many 'biosignatures' that could indicate the presence of life on other worlds, some of which we have found on mars, in enceladus's plumes, and potentially the surface of europa, but the only problem right now is that the biosignatures we have seen on these other worlds are signatures that could potentially be formed by abiotic processes as well, so the task now is to confirm the mechanisms producing such signatures on these worlds. In other words, we need to go back to these places and look for more robust biosignatures! ;D
It would be amazing if you had some content like this in the form of those ambient-type, sleepy space videos. Your content is super informative; i nearly always end up sidetracked because I’m looking up something from your video… which is just hard when you are lying in bed. For whatever reason, evolutionary biology / natural history / extinction events etc are very interesting to hear about when you are drifting off to sleep. Great work anyways!
Thanks for the video. Since you study sedimentation, can you do a video on using microbes to speed up the carbon-silicate cycle and how it relates to our efforts to sequester carbon through "enhanced rock weathering"? Especially interesting would be the microbial production of carbonic anhydrase catalyst as a way to speed up the rate limiting step. A bonus would be any geological examples or learnings from the recently discovered hot springs microbes whose carbonic anhydrase is now the most effective known (pushing our human enzyme version to 2nd place.)
I watched this episode today. Absolutely fascinating! I knew that everything depended on microbes, but I really didn't understand why, or how, exactly, they did what they did, or even what they did. Thank you so much for your work as an educator! And I can understand why you're working in this particular part of your field. I'm hooked too now, because of you. So thank you!
This comment really made my day. This is the exact response I am going for! Getting people interested in and appreciative of things they never even thought about! I am so passionate about it because most (if not all) of the topics I discuss on my channel were things that I once had no idea about or appreciation for, and when I learned about them it blew my mind! :D So I just hope to give that same 'amazed and intrigued' feeling to others ;) Thank you for commenting this. This kind of comment is what keeps me going!
05:09 LOL! "CHu-NOPS" In Britain, we called it CHONS-Puh when I was in school. Something to do with how common each element is in the body. I'm ashamed to say I cannot remember whether nitrogen is more common than oxygen, or if phosphorous is more common than sulphur. Looking at DNA/RNA vs proteins, I'd guess that phosphorous is more common than sulphur. {:o:O:}
@@ansfridaeyowulfsdottir8095 Haha that is so funny, but also cool about the percentages! Thanks for sharing! I have actually heard a couple different renditions in the US, including CHNOPS and I think it was SPONCH haha but I am not sure if the latter was just that one girl or if other people also say that lol :)
@@GEOGIRL Yes, it's like in maths (with an "S"!), we say BODMAS, but it seems Americans say PEDMAS, or something similar. Parentheses (which is more correct) in the US, whereas we say Brackets Out, Divide, Multiply, Add, Subtract. 🤣 I won't go into faucet and burglarise! {:o:O:}
yes, photosynthesis converts water into oxygen but, half of that oxygen comes from CO₂ if you count the O atoms 6H₂O + 6CO₂ => C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ 6 O₂ molecules are formed which need 12 O atoms but 6 H₂O molecules only contain 6 O atoms so, the other 6 come from the 6 CO₂ molecules what happens is that as an intermediary step an O atom is ripped off of a CO₂ molecule and temporarily converted into a H₂O molecule glucose is constructed out of CO molecules H-C-O-H the 2 H atoms coming from the H₂O molecule
Schmidt Ocean Institute is hosting a team that is doing research on vents in the east pacific, and one of the things they are looking at is underground transportation of bacteria & species symbiotic with bacteria that feed on the thermal vents. It's specialist stuff, but they are at 2500 meters, so it's deep
@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515 "species symbiotic with bacteria" It isn't just positive symbionts. There can be tens of millions of viruses per ml of seawater with a large proportion bacteriophages. There is debate on the 'living' status of viruses but they are a significant medium of energy and resources diverted into biological feedback for adaptation. And in some cases genetic exchange/modification. It is an ancient war of living vs nanoborg on a massive scale but largely invisible.
Tiny correction: microbes AND fungi 'run the world'. Breaking down the rock to make soil possible required both phagocytes and miniature levers. Most nitrogen-fixing is done by legumes. They gather it in their roots to make it available for distribution to those two agents. BTW the Science used/provided by Regenerative Agriculture offers the complete, win-win response to any Climate concerns.
Sorry for the miscommunication, I actually include fungi in the definition of microbes. I think I mentioned that later, but not at the beginning of the video. I couldn't agree more! Fungi are just as important :D
Yay!!! 🎉 thanks GEOGIRL! 😊 learn so much from your videos! Making me very interested in geology. I work in medical lab and love to hear and watch your well put together videos. I liked today's video cause I can actually understand a little of what's going on. I'm lost in the woods on rocks. I'm enjoying your content!
Chinops. heard that! (neverheardthat) lol When I hit my quarter life crisis, i dived into planted aquariums super heavy, takashi amano heavy. lol But the intro to aquariums is literally the nitrogen cycle. it really broadened my idea of things tho, just by what it takes to harbor life, and how theres a scale to size. awesome topic being at the cross roads of chemistry, geology, and biology too! another great video rach. GEO GIRL ROCKs!!
Another excellent video :) And as others say, quite educational too. / I Just wanted to share some info from this end. One of NHSMs biggest contributors recently passed away, and I have the honor of putting his collection into ours. It's a lot of stuff and will take a while, but as always, my hands on experience will increase my knowledge. Most of his specimens seem to be from the Miocene Epoch, collected in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. Maryland's Calvert Cliffs are Miocene too, though of different formations. We also have Cretaceous and Eocene fossils.
I am a student of hydrogeochemistry, so other than 1 semester of O-chem, I have no real biochemistry or biology background. I even took a graduate level course on microbial interactions between water and rock (catalyzing mineral dissolution, microbial methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, etc.) and the "microbes" part was pretty lackluster. We were basically told that microbes more or less "eat" the electrons and that's how they get their energy to live. I know it's much more complex than this. What would you recommend I read or watch that would help me understand how exactly microbes use "energy"?
Great question! I highly recommend the book 'geomicrobiology' by kurt konhauser: amzn.to/46UxINU I have read a lot of bio books but this one was the only one that really simplified the metabolism part for me. But if that's a bit pricy for you, I have a 'geobiology' playlist in which I basically cover as much of Kurt's book as I could: ruclips.net/p/PL69bBhmsrgfs2GuFioWkJpO3P_aTjSIkE The playlist covers a lot about how the 'energy' for life works but kind of scattered among many videos. I think the one that most directly discusses this is the redox video: ruclips.net/video/lJGqnZOHG5w/видео.html but that one is a bit old and I wasn't that great at explaining things yet lol, the other one that may be good is the anaerobe to aerobe video: ruclips.net/video/Yxu2WtDHQmc/видео.html or the first life: ruclips.net/video/HtwAwKLSlMk/видео.html or the 'life without oxygen' video: ruclips.net/video/FE8LpitObIQ/видео.html because those cover various pathways of metabolisms carried out by microbes that may help to illustrate the process of how they gain energy. However, if you are interested more in the actual electron transport and enzymatic processes within the cell, I recomment the brock biology of microorganisms book: amzn.to/3DiIoZm That one is even more pricy than the geomicrobbio one I think, but it does go over the electron transport and ATP production. If you don't want to pay for that though, I highly recommend watching 'crash course' biology videos on youtube and 'ameoba sisters' (the courses look as though they are made for younger audiences, but they carried me through my college biology courses hahaha, so don't underestimate their power) ;) That's all I got, best of luck! ;D
@@GEOGIRL Thank you so much! It's so crazy that you put out such high quality content and only have 35K followers. But at least a smaller follower count means that you have the time to directly talk to your fans :)
".... because they are the only things that convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen compounds that are usable by other life." There's actually another natural process that can fix atmospheric nitrogen and make it available to living things, lightning. Lighting bolts going through our nitrogen and oxygen rich atmosphere produce a lot of nitric and nitrous oxydes, which are then dissolved in rain water and precipitated in soil. I don't know what percentage of nitrogen is fixed in this way, but I bet it's a significant one.
Yep! I had a whole part where I went into how lightening does this but cut it out due to time haha! Thank you so much for adding this comment here! I understand this is how life that evolved before N fixing bacteria got their N, but the only problem was it wasn't a lot of N that got fixed this way. I've read only about 5 up to 10% of N is fixed by lightening so it is mostly microbially fixed, but it does contribute! ;)
Thanks you Geo-Mommy for Geosplaining the importance of the microcosmos. I can now cook my chicken with your wonderful commentary and knowledge being injected straight into my blood-brain barrier gaining a few more gigabytes of wisdom that i may or may not apply into my conduct in the real world.
Thanks. Learned lots. But this time more than usual. I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was 8, but the librarian thought I was lying about being able to read science books. Now I see that it was geology that I was really interested in.
Some of us are very biased toward thinking Geology is the Science of Sciencing, and the discovery that Mathematics is pure discovery of analog type inspection of events, "it's no wonder" that Geology is the actual discovery methodology of Time Duration Timing modulation cause-effect required by default logic of time-timing. So it should be no surprise that the study of Geology is still the nearest to natural Apprenticeships scheme by nature of real-time truth, WYSIWYG. Every Geologist has to reiterate learning by doing, as indigenous children learn. (Modern/current Educationalists need the reminder, as we always do) In other words, Geo Girl is the best Teacher.
Thanks Rachel, as always an interesting topic, and essential in understanding what’s important to life. Since I have been interested in keeping fish, from a tropical aquarium in my youth to now aquaponic systems in my older retirement years, the understanding of the nitrogen bacteria cycle has been important. Your thorough presentation of the various cycles opened my eyes to the complexity of bacterial importance. They are driving everything! Chynops. That’s what I heard (I don’t hear clearly, loud music in my youth?) I think that’s not how you meant it 🧐
Haha, yes CHNOPS elements are the essential elements for life, I tend to abbreviate it into a funny sounding word, lol I should've clarified that better ;)
I love the accent of this lady. Her diction is perfect. It is very easy to understand for a foreigner like myself. She's obviously from the 🇺🇸 but I wonder what state she is from. Congratulations for your extraordinary ability to express yourself so clearly, Ms. Geo Girl!
I remember reading somewhere years ago, Rachel, that 50% of the naturally occurring nitrates in the Earth's soil come from NO2 created by lightning superheating the local and that NO2 interacting with rain to form nitrous-acid.
At the end of HG Welles War of the Worlds the Martians are defeated by microbes. Basically, they catch colds and die. They used this same ending in the modern movie staring Tom Crouse. I always thought this was stupid, because I could not imagine a world with life but no microbes. Is it possible that they had microbes but they lacked pathogenic microbes? Only a tiny fraction of microbes on Earth cause disease in other animals. Is it possible that evolution might go a way where none of the microbes become pathogenic?
Thank you for awesome videos. If you and Anton Petrov collaborate on panspermia it would be interesting to learn about the critical instances required for life.
Another stunner! I wholeheartedly recommend the book Microbes And Man by John Raymond Postgate, now it its fourth printing (I think -- since 1969) and readily available in all the usual places. I don't think it's in any danger of being banned by weird politicians. Prokaryotes for fun and profit! And diversity is the key!
When' multi-cellular life moved from the oceans to land we know plants made the move before animals, when did microbes make the move? Before, after or at the same time as the plants?
aren't microbes the majority of life on Earth? ....not sure if I asked that correctly, but I thought I heard somewhere that they make up the largest mass of carbon based life forms on the planet; and in just the top soil and oceans, store something like 7 times the amount of carbon than everything living on the surface
are one celled organisms the most successful organisms ever, because they have less organs to become damaged? I am sure it depends on the volume of the one organ relative to to the entire body and the ability to heal that one organ, assuming that one celled means one organed, which perhaps it does not; i guess it could mean no organed. Do not apologize for talking about microbes on a geo channel. the fact that you are connecting the rocks to life really shows the way in which geology is important.
Yes, they are. On the other hand viruses are not living creatures but are basic, essential, for all kind of life. There four theories about what viruses are. Best viruses experts cannot make up their minds yet because the say that maybe viruses are a mixture of those four theories or... something else. Nobody really knows what viruses are but best experts studying viruses for 40 years do know that viruses are essential for life.
All my chemistry profs say it with a hard 'c' sound so that is how I say it, but it may be pronouced differently in other regions or by other scientists ;)
Beautifully done, never cease to amaze. My company creates bio-optimized mineral based living soils for inspiring the individual to grow the highest quality food possible in small spaces! Building an effective ecosystem for cycling nutrients in what we are all about. Let me know if you want to chat! Be greatly interested in anything you may be able to add to our product effectiveness and mission!!
Before I even watch this, I'm going to guess that it completely reinforces why I can laugh at all the plans for terraforming Mars which takes zero microbes into account. Just some humans and some sterile chemical "fertiliser". 🤣 Yes, that's all you'll need, little Elon. Run along.
Essentially it's all kind of just elements and subatomic particles being constructed and deconstructed into a plethora of different forms through perpetual recycling. The universe sort of is like an ocean in that way, kind of zen, the waves are the water and the waters are the waves sort of thing.
Very interesting. Was surprised to get a biology lecture from a Geologist. Made me realize how dependent we are on our biosphere, right down to the level of microbes.
I know right! You have no idea the learning curve I had to go through when I came to grad school and found out just how much biology impacts geology! :D
@@GEOGIRL How a microscopic creature can do that is humbling. There is still much to learn.
@@GEOGIRL I bet no biologist could give me a geology lecture though!
Isn't her education in some crazy shit like marine isotopic bio-geo-chem-pysics or something?
She should just get a meteorology degree and call it a day
She has other videos on invertebrates also
@@whatabouttheearth Hahaha you actually nailed my field! I didn't think you guys knew that so well! haha (Well except for the physics part, that I don't do lol) ;)
Thank you for your interest in microbes.
Thanks also for your in depth explanation of the different cycles.
That was really cool and very interesting!
I live in an intensely farmed area of the country.
It's mostly huge farms of thousands of acres each.
There are no small farms anymore at all around here.
They have bulldozed all of the trees, burned them in brush-piles, and now everything is irrigated with center-pivot systems.
This leaves the once dark, rich, prairie soil, looking bleached and lifeless.
Kind of like the thumbnail for this video.
I have said for years that they have killed their soil!
I see now in reality that what they have destroyed is their microbes!
I hope that one day in the near future, that videos like this will educate the right people and make the changes we need.
Thank you again for your videos.
I have watched most of them, but this one hit real close to home for me.
Thank you so much for the kind and contrutive words! Couldn't agree more! The microbes are the ones keeping the soil 'alive' per se ;)
Those fields will soon be unproductive. To regenerate them, it will need herds. The soil needs the herds' depositions to regenerate. It will be very hard in the beginning for lack of food and, most likely, water, too. In my country, field-regenerating techniques usually include building a lot of interconnected ponds and dividing fences. For instance, you may need to regenerate100 HA of terrain. Your herd (e.g, sheep) will need to feed from one fenced HA of terrain, but food depletion will make you move the herd to another HA soon, most likely the next day. Each HA needs its own pond, fed with water from the other ponds (via gravity or solar-fed pumps). After 100 days, all the 100 HA production has been consumed by the herd, but the first HA's have grown food again, so the cycle restarts.
I fell asleep listening to this and had the weirdest fever dream about microbes and electron transfer lol
Thanks! So much information all in one video, and so well organized. Love it!
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it ;D
Thank you Geo girl for giving me another angel to think of
Thanks!
Thank you so much! ;D So glad you enjoyed the video :)
I've recently made a point to start intentionally studying the biogeochemical cycles because they are so important to understand the bigger picture of earth systems, but my god it gets complex once you get past the basic mainstream surface level explanations.
It really is a good way to learn overlaps in biology (zoology/botany), geology, oceanography, limnology, atmospheric science and chemistry to gain a basic holistic understanding of the earth.
ADD slows learning down sometimes, it's like being a moth attracted to any random light that shines, so it's hard to keep focused sometimes, I have to intentionally keep looping back to the same things until the knowledge learned (in my memory) develops further.
Rachel, This was a busy one. Tons of science running beneath the surface. Solid work 💪! Thank you.
👏👏👏👏
Thanks so much! This is one of my favs too ;)
Almost a lecture straight out of my microbiology course. Very nicely presented. There are only a couple things I would add. Not only does metabolism fix elements a d make important molecules needed for life systems, it also creates the immediate environment for processes to happen, like set the pH and local aerobic and anaerobic levels that make biochemical processes possible. Since these organisms live in close association one microbes waste products are another's required compounds. Some organisms likewise synthesize coenzyme for whole communities.
Really enjoyed the talk.
Hey Rachel, I've got accepted to Geology today. Wanted to share because I like you channel a lot and you are a big inspration. Thanks for being who you are.
YAY! Congratulations! Which program? Undergrad or grad? Either way, best of luck! Update me along the way ;D
GEO GIRL making whole videos to follow up on a comment 👌💯💯💯
I've only watched the outline so far but I can't help but comment that you didn't mention that microbes occupy physical space , are little balloons of water, and completely change the way that water moves through the medium (be it soil, rock, sand, etc.) because they block the flow of water, hold water up where it would normally runoff, things like that. Therefore microbes are responsible for making water available for plants, not because of a chemical process, but because they hold the water where the plants can reach it. Of course the chemical environment is so interesting and important , but so much is just the physical object that a microbe is. (in the same way that a tree provides a physical environment with shade , protection, food sources, )
That is such a great point and important aspect of microbes effect on the global biogeochemical cycles, especially the water cycle! Thank you for mentioning this here in the comments ;D
Thank you for this video. I watch your videos for geology, and geochemistry. I have been an organic chemist for over 40 years. My minor was biochem (I can draw the Calvin cycle in my sleep). I didn't think I would learn anything in this one. As an organic chemist I always dealt with reduced forms of carbon. CO2 to me was just the waste product of metabolism and feedstock of photosynthesis. Your picture, at 11:35 minutes, of a CO2 molecule flying across the water was a revelation to me. I had never thought of CO2 being crucial in transporting carbon atoms around the world. Thanks.
Yes, CO2 transport is an essential part of the carbon cycle! It is unfortunately that most media these days depicts CO2 as a 'bad' thing, when really it is essential and it is only the rate at which we are releasing it that throws the cycle out of balance. But yes, reduced carbon is also incredibly important for life and completes the C cycle ;)
❤ Thanks Rachel. Finally someone that gives some respect to the microorganisms. The place they deserve. An excellent YT video. From your other video's I recall that microbial biochemical affinity to chirality and isotopes are excellent indicators in your research.
Absolutely, chirality and isotopes are great biosignatures! :D
Omg I thought this was a short and I was so confused for a second😂 but now I have a video to do chores to! Thanks again! (Also 1st)
Rachel that was brilliantly explained. Agree it couldn’t have been possible to explain in a comment chain. Besides nitrates from nitrogen in the atmosphere, they are the biogeochemical cycles that contribute to other nutrients available to plants. Also, this video is as geological as it can be. Microbes play significant roles in rocks and minerals formation through out Earth’s history. Thank you for explaining all of that, Professor Rachel Phillips 😊
Soil. As in dirt. Rock dust, plus microbial life plus plants equals soil. Soil, the living biome in which nutrients are made available. life has such an amazing relationship with nutrient cycles, not relationship but a part, we are a part of the nutrient cycle. I just feel so deeply connected to the way nutrients and energy flows, and he way life animates itself in different form in accordance the type of chemical process at play. It's hard not to be forced to stop and just wait, admire the amazing way all this has shaped up to be.
Well done Rachel…I learned so much from your discussion. It made me think beyond our earth towards the possibilities of extraterrestrial microbial activity. Are there any outward signs, suggestions or evidence from our planetary system that such activity could exist?
Absolutely! We have identified so many 'biosignatures' that could indicate the presence of life on other worlds, some of which we have found on mars, in enceladus's plumes, and potentially the surface of europa, but the only problem right now is that the biosignatures we have seen on these other worlds are signatures that could potentially be formed by abiotic processes as well, so the task now is to confirm the mechanisms producing such signatures on these worlds. In other words, we need to go back to these places and look for more robust biosignatures! ;D
It would be amazing if you had some content like this in the form of those ambient-type, sleepy space videos. Your content is super informative; i nearly always end up sidetracked because I’m looking up something from your video… which is just hard when you are lying in bed. For whatever reason, evolutionary biology / natural history / extinction events etc are very interesting to hear about when you are drifting off to sleep. Great work anyways!
Thanks for the video.
Since you study sedimentation, can you do a video on using microbes to speed up the carbon-silicate cycle and how it relates to our efforts to sequester carbon through "enhanced rock weathering"?
Especially interesting would be the microbial production of carbonic anhydrase catalyst as a way to speed up the rate limiting step. A bonus would be any geological examples or learnings from the recently discovered hot springs microbes whose carbonic anhydrase is now the most effective known (pushing our human enzyme version to 2nd place.)
Absolutely, that is a wonderful idea, thank you! ;D
I watched this episode today. Absolutely fascinating! I knew that everything depended on microbes, but I really didn't understand why, or how, exactly, they did what they did, or even what they did. Thank you so much for your work as an educator! And I can understand why you're working in this particular part of your field. I'm hooked too now, because of you. So thank you!
This comment really made my day. This is the exact response I am going for! Getting people interested in and appreciative of things they never even thought about! I am so passionate about it because most (if not all) of the topics I discuss on my channel were things that I once had no idea about or appreciation for, and when I learned about them it blew my mind! :D So I just hope to give that same 'amazed and intrigued' feeling to others ;) Thank you for commenting this. This kind of comment is what keeps me going!
Great video...truly enjoyed watching!
05:09
LOL! "CHu-NOPS"
In Britain, we called it CHONS-Puh when I was in school. Something to do with how common each element is in the body.
I'm ashamed to say I cannot remember whether nitrogen is more common than oxygen, or if phosphorous is more common than sulphur. Looking at DNA/RNA vs proteins, I'd guess that phosphorous is more common than sulphur.
{:o:O:}
Actually, it looks like it's HOCNPS by percentage of atoms, but OCHNPS by mass!
You live and learn! 😃
{:o:O:}
@@ansfridaeyowulfsdottir8095 Haha that is so funny, but also cool about the percentages! Thanks for sharing! I have actually heard a couple different renditions in the US, including CHNOPS and I think it was SPONCH haha but I am not sure if the latter was just that one girl or if other people also say that lol :)
@@GEOGIRL
Yes, it's like in maths (with an "S"!), we say BODMAS, but it seems Americans say PEDMAS, or something similar. Parentheses (which is more correct) in the US, whereas we say Brackets Out, Divide, Multiply, Add, Subtract. 🤣
I won't go into faucet and burglarise!
{:o:O:}
Great video, very informative. Thanks
Interesting video Rachel. I for one enjoy this different topic.
This was fantastic. Thanks! I have also listened to "I Contain Multitudes" and can recommend it.
yes, photosynthesis converts water into oxygen
but, half of that oxygen comes from CO₂
if you count the O atoms
6H₂O + 6CO₂ => C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂
6 O₂ molecules are formed
which need 12 O atoms
but 6 H₂O molecules only contain 6 O atoms
so, the other 6 come from the 6 CO₂ molecules
what happens is that as an intermediary step
an O atom is ripped off of a CO₂ molecule
and temporarily converted into a H₂O molecule
glucose is constructed out of CO molecules
H-C-O-H
the 2 H atoms coming from the H₂O molecule
Excellent! Ya can never get too much biochem.
lol youtube's auto closed captioning - "that enzyme called androgynous which fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere"
Schmidt Ocean Institute is hosting a team that is doing research on vents in the east pacific, and one of the things they are looking at is underground transportation of bacteria & species symbiotic with bacteria that feed on the thermal vents. It's specialist stuff, but they are at 2500 meters, so it's deep
Yikes!! Will try to follow their progress, thanks!
That's awesome! Those types of microbes may be analogous to potential life on enceladus! :D
@@GEOGIRL Let's go take a look!
@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515 "species symbiotic with bacteria"
It isn't just positive symbionts.
There can be tens of millions of viruses per ml of seawater with a large proportion bacteriophages.
There is debate on the 'living' status of viruses but they are a significant medium of energy and resources diverted into biological feedback for adaptation. And in some cases genetic exchange/modification.
It is an ancient war of living vs nanoborg on a massive scale but largely invisible.
let's just hope we don't end life on earth by misuse of penicillin and others now 😅. another great video, GEO GIRL! ;)
I'm trying very hard to be a garden gnome, and even though I have the hairy part down I need more understanding. I like your topic HEY!
Such a great job on these videos!!
Thanks! ;D
Tiny correction: microbes AND fungi 'run the world'. Breaking down the rock to make soil possible required both phagocytes and miniature levers. Most nitrogen-fixing is done by legumes. They gather it in their roots to make it available for distribution to those two agents. BTW the Science used/provided by Regenerative Agriculture offers the complete, win-win response to any Climate concerns.
Sorry for the miscommunication, I actually include fungi in the definition of microbes. I think I mentioned that later, but not at the beginning of the video. I couldn't agree more! Fungi are just as important :D
@@GEOGIRL You did, I saw that when I opened the transcript. Please consider me disciplined and contrite.
Nice job Interdisciplinary girl!!😊
Haha Biogeo girl I guess, or biogeochem girl ;)
Yay!!! 🎉 thanks GEOGIRL! 😊 learn so much from your videos! Making me very interested in geology. I work in medical lab and love to hear and watch your well put together videos. I liked today's video cause I can actually understand a little of what's going on. I'm lost in the woods on rocks. I'm enjoying your content!
i liked and enjoyed watching this video i learned something new from this video thankyou for making areal great video i liked watching this
Thanks so much! I am so glad you enjoyed it ;D
Chinops. heard that! (neverheardthat) lol When I hit my quarter life crisis, i dived into planted aquariums super heavy, takashi amano heavy. lol But the intro to aquariums is literally the nitrogen cycle. it really broadened my idea of things tho, just by what it takes to harbor life, and how theres a scale to size. awesome topic being at the cross roads of chemistry, geology, and biology too! another great video rach. GEO GIRL ROCKs!!
that was genuinely fascinating, thank you
Thanks so much! I am glad to hear that ;D
Another excellent video :) And as others say, quite educational too. / I Just wanted to share some info from this end. One of NHSMs biggest contributors recently passed away, and I have the honor of putting his collection into ours. It's a lot of stuff and will take a while, but as always, my hands on experience will increase my knowledge. Most of his specimens seem to be from the Miocene Epoch, collected in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. Maryland's Calvert Cliffs are Miocene too, though of different formations. We also have Cretaceous and Eocene fossils.
Brilliant, the more you learn in one field the more it spills into others and just realize how much we really don't know.
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I am a student of hydrogeochemistry, so other than 1 semester of O-chem, I have no real biochemistry or biology background. I even took a graduate level course on microbial interactions between water and rock (catalyzing mineral dissolution, microbial methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, etc.) and the "microbes" part was pretty lackluster. We were basically told that microbes more or less "eat" the electrons and that's how they get their energy to live. I know it's much more complex than this. What would you recommend I read or watch that would help me understand how exactly microbes use "energy"?
Great question! I highly recommend the book 'geomicrobiology' by kurt konhauser: amzn.to/46UxINU
I have read a lot of bio books but this one was the only one that really simplified the metabolism part for me. But if that's a bit pricy for you, I have a 'geobiology' playlist in which I basically cover as much of Kurt's book as I could: ruclips.net/p/PL69bBhmsrgfs2GuFioWkJpO3P_aTjSIkE
The playlist covers a lot about how the 'energy' for life works but kind of scattered among many videos. I think the one that most directly discusses this is the redox video: ruclips.net/video/lJGqnZOHG5w/видео.html but that one is a bit old and I wasn't that great at explaining things yet lol, the other one that may be good is the anaerobe to aerobe video: ruclips.net/video/Yxu2WtDHQmc/видео.html or the first life: ruclips.net/video/HtwAwKLSlMk/видео.html or the 'life without oxygen' video: ruclips.net/video/FE8LpitObIQ/видео.html because those cover various pathways of metabolisms carried out by microbes that may help to illustrate the process of how they gain energy.
However, if you are interested more in the actual electron transport and enzymatic processes within the cell, I recomment the brock biology of microorganisms book: amzn.to/3DiIoZm
That one is even more pricy than the geomicrobbio one I think, but it does go over the electron transport and ATP production. If you don't want to pay for that though, I highly recommend watching 'crash course' biology videos on youtube and 'ameoba sisters' (the courses look as though they are made for younger audiences, but they carried me through my college biology courses hahaha, so don't underestimate their power) ;)
That's all I got, best of luck! ;D
@@GEOGIRL Thank you so much! It's so crazy that you put out such high quality content and only have 35K followers. But at least a smaller follower count means that you have the time to directly talk to your fans :)
".... because they are the only things that convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen compounds that are usable by other life." There's actually another natural process that can fix atmospheric nitrogen and make it available to living things, lightning. Lighting bolts going through our nitrogen and oxygen rich atmosphere produce a lot of nitric and nitrous oxydes, which are then dissolved in rain water and precipitated in soil. I don't know what percentage of nitrogen is fixed in this way, but I bet it's a significant one.
Yep! I had a whole part where I went into how lightening does this but cut it out due to time haha! Thank you so much for adding this comment here! I understand this is how life that evolved before N fixing bacteria got their N, but the only problem was it wasn't a lot of N that got fixed this way. I've read only about 5 up to 10% of N is fixed by lightening so it is mostly microbially fixed, but it does contribute! ;)
I love your commenters 👍🏼
Great thank you geo girl
Thanks you Geo-Mommy for Geosplaining the importance of the microcosmos. I can now cook my chicken with your wonderful commentary and knowledge being injected straight into my blood-brain barrier gaining a few more gigabytes of wisdom that i may or may not apply into my conduct in the real world.
Nicely done.
Thank you!
I like when you talk to me like this!😊
thanks for the video it's very educational
Thanks! So glad you found it informative :D
Thanks. Learned lots. But this time more than usual. I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was 8, but the librarian thought I was lying about being able to read science books. Now I see that it was geology that I was really interested in.
Insightful.
Thanks!
Life happens wherever it can. Where it can't, it takes a bit longer.
Some of us are very biased toward thinking Geology is the Science of Sciencing, and the discovery that Mathematics is pure discovery of analog type inspection of events, "it's no wonder" that Geology is the actual discovery methodology of Time Duration Timing modulation cause-effect required by default logic of time-timing.
So it should be no surprise that the study of Geology is still the nearest to natural Apprenticeships scheme by nature of real-time truth, WYSIWYG. Every Geologist has to reiterate learning by doing, as indigenous children learn. (Modern/current Educationalists need the reminder, as we always do)
In other words, Geo Girl is the best Teacher.
Thanks Rachel, as always an interesting topic, and essential in understanding what’s important to life.
Since I have been interested in keeping fish, from a tropical aquarium in my youth to now aquaponic systems in my older retirement years, the understanding of the nitrogen bacteria cycle has been important.
Your thorough presentation of the various cycles opened my eyes to the complexity of bacterial importance. They are driving everything!
Chynops. That’s what I heard (I don’t hear clearly, loud music in my youth?) I think that’s not how you meant it 🧐
Haha, yes CHNOPS elements are the essential elements for life, I tend to abbreviate it into a funny sounding word, lol I should've clarified that better ;)
I love the accent of this lady.
Her diction is perfect. It is very easy to understand for a foreigner like myself.
She's obviously from the 🇺🇸 but I wonder what state she is from.
Congratulations for your extraordinary ability to express yourself so clearly, Ms. Geo Girl!
Ilike your explaination thanks
I remember reading somewhere years ago, Rachel, that 50% of the naturally occurring nitrates in the Earth's soil come from NO2 created by lightning superheating the local and that NO2 interacting with rain to form nitrous-acid.
At the end of HG Welles War of the Worlds the Martians are defeated by microbes. Basically, they catch colds and die. They used this same ending in the modern movie staring Tom Crouse.
I always thought this was stupid, because I could not imagine a world with life but no microbes.
Is it possible that they had microbes but they lacked pathogenic microbes?
Only a tiny fraction of microbes on Earth cause disease in other animals. Is it possible that evolution might go a way where none of the microbes become pathogenic?
How to become a member of your channel. I could not find an option. Do you make member those have degrees in geology?
Press the 'join' button on my channel page that is next to the subscribe button :)
Very important for scientists considering colonizing planets like Mars. Nothing is going to grow in completely sterile soil. :)
Thank you for awesome videos.
If you and Anton Petrov collaborate on panspermia it would be interesting to learn about the critical instances required for life.
I LOVE YOU GEO GIRL!!!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
E. coli in our small-intestines is critical to the proper digestion of food.
Once upon a time, Geo Girl came into my life, brains and beauty 🤣🤣🤣😍😍
Another stunner! I wholeheartedly recommend the book Microbes And Man by John Raymond Postgate, now it its fourth printing (I think -- since 1969) and readily available in all the usual places. I don't think it's in any danger of being banned by weird politicians. Prokaryotes for fun and profit! And diversity is the key!
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out :D
Beauty and Brain, I'm in love... 😍👋
When' multi-cellular life moved from the oceans to land we know plants made the move before animals, when did microbes make the move? Before, after or at the same time as the plants?
aren't microbes the majority of life on Earth?
....not sure if I asked that correctly, but I thought I heard somewhere that they make up the largest mass of carbon based life forms on the planet; and in just the top soil and oceans, store something like 7 times the amount of carbon than everything living on the surface
Yep! Microbes make up the majority of life on earth in both biomass volume and numbers! ;D They are incredible!
are one celled organisms the most successful organisms ever, because they have less organs to become damaged? I am sure it depends on the volume of the one organ relative to to the entire body and the ability to heal that one organ, assuming that one celled means one organed, which perhaps it does not; i guess it could mean no organed.
Do not apologize for talking about microbes on a geo channel. the fact that you are connecting the rocks to life really shows the way in which geology is important.
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't microbes life?
Yep, they absolutely are! :D
Yes, they are.
On the other hand viruses are not living creatures but are basic, essential, for all kind of life.
There four theories about what viruses are.
Best viruses experts cannot make up their minds yet because the say that maybe viruses are a mixture of those four theories or... something else.
Nobody really knows what viruses are but best experts studying viruses for 40 years do know that viruses are essential for life.
A bit too rapid fire for my taste but lots of good info
Thanks for the feedback! :)
Are we not to pronounce the 'ch' sound in chelation. If that is so, I have been mispronouncing this term for years.
All my chemistry profs say it with a hard 'c' sound so that is how I say it, but it may be pronouced differently in other regions or by other scientists ;)
Your awesome I love your videos and I just want you to know you beautiful.
microbes are cool 🦠
Agreed ;)
This latest video by Anton Petrov ( ruclips.net/video/rWXdh3Uvx8w/видео.html ) might interest you, Rachel.
Beautifully done, never cease to amaze. My company creates bio-optimized mineral based living soils for inspiring the individual to grow the highest quality food possible in small spaces! Building an effective ecosystem for cycling nutrients in what we are all about. Let me know if you want to chat! Be greatly interested in anything you may be able to add to our product effectiveness and mission!!
Before I even watch this, I'm going to guess that it completely reinforces why I can laugh at all the plans for terraforming Mars which takes zero microbes into account. Just some humans and some sterile chemical "fertiliser". 🤣 Yes, that's all you'll need, little Elon. Run along.
So Beyonce was wrong then? It's not girls but microbes.
LOL yes, unfortunately the queen missed on that one ;)
You're sweet
666 likes,no more likes for you!🤣
I find it interesting that, at the end of the day, all life ever really accomplishes is moving material around.
the idea is move as much as you can just to keep from getting buried by everyone elses material moving.
Essentially it's all kind of just elements and subatomic particles being constructed and deconstructed into a plethora of different forms through perpetual recycling. The universe sort of is like an ocean in that way, kind of zen, the waves are the water and the waters are the waves sort of thing.