Ep. 13 - Kristen, David, and Nick - 4/24/18

Lab Talk with Laura

I'm joined by Dr Kristen DeAngelis of the Microbiology dept at UMass and Dr David Sela of the Food Science dept with comedian Nick Caron co-hosting. Kristen talks about her work studying how climate change affects soil bacteria communities and the breakdown of carbon in a long term study site at Harvard Forest. David discusses his work investigating bacteria in our digestive systems, especially how these bacteria interact with breast milk in infants. Yet again Gaia theory comes up and we take note of the similarities between bacteria communities in soil and in our bodies. I also learn about prions, plasmids, and lignans for the first time. Check it out!