Pint of Science: Invisible Life

About Lecture One

The invisible forest: Life and death of the ocean’s superabundant microorganisms with Anne Thompson PhD, Assistant Professor, Portland State University’s Biology Department and the Center for Life in Extreme Environments

Every drop of water in the Earth’s open ocean is teeming with microbial life that plays a large part in the energy and nutrient cycles on Earth. Particularly numerous in this system are cells that use the sun’s light for energy and make oxygen. These cells are the most numerous light- harvesting cells on Earth. They are more abundant than all plant cells on Earth but are all but invisible because of their tiny size and preference for the most remote parts of the ocean. This talk will look at what has been learned about these cells in the last 40 years since their discovery and how insight into their life and death has changed our understanding of life on Earth.

About Lecture Two

ELVIS has left the planet—looking at bacterial swimming on the Space Station with Jay Nadeau, PhD, Professor of Physics, Portland State University

If life elsewhere was microbial, how would we find it and prove that it’s alive? The goal of ELVIS, a custom microscope for space flight, is to “look for life by looking for life”—placing sparse liquid samples into a robotically operated microscope and looking for objects that look and act like cells. Eventually we would like to try this on water worlds such as Europa, but before that, we need to know what “look and act like cells” means in Earth and in space. From Greenland to the Space Station, ELVIS has looked at microbial swimming, and we invite you to visit this active microscopic world.

Tickets

$2-$10 Sliding Scale

$2 of each ticket supports Pint of Science; any amount above $2 supports OMSI

About the Speakers

Anne Thompson is an Assistant Professor in Portland State University’s Biology Department and the Center for Life in Extreme Environments. Dr. Thompson received her PhD from the MIT- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Biological Oceanography and has held positions at UC Santa Cruz, BD Biosciences, and the Institute for Systems Biology. Dr. Thompson’s work illuminates the ecology of microorganisms in the Earth’s vast open oceans and how they contribute to energy and carbon flow on our planet. Her team uses approaches in sea-going oceanography, molecular biology, microbiology, systems, and computational biology to understand these essential microbes.

Jay Nadeau is a Professor of Physics at Portland State University. Dr. Nadeau received her PhD in physics from the University of Minnesota and previously held positions at McGill University, Caltech, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Life Detection. Her research focuses on nanoparticles, fluorescence imaging, and the development of instruments to detect life elsewhere in the solar system. Her lab brings together researchers from physics, chemistry, microbiology, robotics, and medicine to study how life can be identified in challenging environments, including space.

About Pint of Science

Pint of Science USA is a national chapter of the international festival that brings some of the most brilliant scientists to your local bar or cafe to discuss their latest research and findings with you. You don’t need any prior knowledge, and this is your chance to meet the people responsible for the future of science (and have a drink with them). Our festival runs over a few days in May every year. Check out all the events taking place in Portland.