Rob Knight and Jack Gilbert interview with Science Friday about the Earth Microbiome Project. Interview can be found here
There are an estimated one trillion different species of bacteria living across the planet. Scientists are just beginning to understand the level of diversity and role these bacteria play in the environment. The Earth Microbiome Project is an effort to collect samples of bacteria from different locations to create a microbial map of the world.
[Meet the killer snail chemist.]
The team of scientists analyzed the first 27,000 samples, which included bacteria collected from permafrost, Komodo dragons, and coral reefs. Biologist Rob Knight and Jack Gilbert, two of the co-founders of the Earth Microbiome Project, discuss what patterns they found in the data and what they tells us about life on Earth on the microbial scale.
