Mats of Archaea on surface of Morning Glory hot spring, Yellowstone Park, WY. Source: 440px-Morning-Glory_Hotspring.jpg (440×328)

Introduction
From the 1860s through the 1970s, the tree of life was grouped into three domains – Plantae, Protista, and Animalia1 (Figure 1).

Fig 1. Simplified phylogenic tree based on Haeckel, 1866.

The Archaea were first discovered in thermal springs where the water temperature was nearly 100 °C (212 °F). Because their general…

Algal growth coating cooling tower backfill.Source: https://petapixel.com/2016/10/13/photos-reveal-guts-massive-cooling-towers/

Introduction

Today’s post continues my survey of microorganisms that commonly infect industrial systems. Algae are photosynthetic members of the Domain Eukarya, Kingdom Protista. Taxonomically and genetically diverse, all algae are photosynthetic (although some can obtain their energy through chemoheterotrophic metabolism – see What’s New, May…

Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung – 87 Unter den Eichen Entrance

Returning to BAM After 46 Years

In the book of Ecclesiastes (1:9), we read: “there is nothing new under the sun.”

In 1978, the International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation Society (IBBS) – then known as the Biodeterioration Society (BS) – held International Biodeterioration Symposium 4 (IBS4) at Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM – ~15 km SW of Berlin’s…

Left: ATP Test kit supplies; Center: PhotonMaster luminometer for ATP luminometry; Right: GeneCount E-32 apparatus for qPCR (Images courtesy of LuminUltra Technologies, Ltd., Fredericton, NB, Canada).

New Publication

The relationship between microbial population ATP and quantitative PCR bioburdens in diesel fuel microcosms (Access Microbiology 2024;6:000695.v4) was published last month. I’ll start this post by thanking my co-authors Dr. Jordan Schmidt and Ms. Danika Nicoletti,…

The Challenge
At this year’s STLE Annual Meeting I presented a paper titled: “The continued importance of antimicrobial pesticides for controlling microbial contamination in industrial process fluids and systems.” Subsequently, the editors of Lube Magazine (https://www.lube-media.com/) invited me to write an article on the topic. That article – available from the Lube Media website only to Lube Magazine subscribers – was published in Lube Magazine, Issue 181, June 2024. …