/sci/ - Science & Math

>>7099931
Take mud samples from around the city.

>>7099931
Maybe there are some cool organisms in deserts.

caves and jungles

One thing you could work on is optimal medium for isolation of non-pathogenic bacteria. Throughout history we have been fixed on disease causing microbes which represent a very very small proportion of all microorganisms. As such, our isolation methods are geared towards growth of these microbes. You could focus on a specific environment and try different growth mediums to see what you can isolate.

You could also look at the microbial ecology of specific environments. Like what organisms are contributing what processes (nitrification, decomposition etc.) and build a picture of some unstudied urban environment.

Take samples from all over the city and put them together and see which microbes win/lose/unaffected.

Try and find some sort of building site where the ground underneath roads is exposed and take samples from there then compare it to the soil found in a local park and an area outside the city. Try and show if the effect of urbanizing the area above the soil has the same affect as next to it using the soil outside the city as a control to show what the microbes might have been like if there was never any building works.

Collect a bunch of wild microbes in a petri dish. Play for them the Beetles, then the Rolling Stones and ask which they prefer.

I don't know where you live but if they use salt on the roads in the winter it could be interesting to do a survey using media containing various NaCl concentrations or other salts. See what cultureable bacteria or fungi you can find at different proximities to salt-treated roads and if more salt-tolerant taxa are isolated closer to the roads.

Stuff like that.

>>7099931
>I live in the middle of America.
You're in a good place to survey soil organisms, and the effect of herbicide/pesticide on those organisms (in rural areas) and the effect of pollutants on them in urban areas.

>>7099951
That was my initial idea, but from where? What variables would I be comparing?

>>7099964
I thought that too, but there aren't really any nearby.

>>7099972
There actually are a lot of caves in this area. Interesting idea.

>>7099982
Good ideas, it's interesting because it's actually a study as part of a microbial ecology program. One thing I can test for is co2 production, or nitrification. I can do genetic analysis, but it'd be easier to test something less work-intensive so as to get more data over more area more easily.
I'm aware of the problem of not being able to culture a great many of the world's microbes, but this might be a difficult thing to pursue. I know methods exist for culturing previously thought unculturable bacteria, but that might just take too long for my purposes. I really need something quick and dirty, but I'll consider these ideas.

>>7099931
Have you seen any work being done on microbiomes of different rooms in buildings? It might be interesting to take samples from the different plumbing systems in different buildings, rooms, areas of town etc.

>>7099986
Like microbe battle-bots, I like it.

>>7100409
That sounds like something I was thinking about doing, but I had a hard time thinking of how to pin down exactly one type of variable to use. For it to be a good study all other factors should be equal and I'd need to choose one particular thing to study. Like would just diversity or abundance of microbes tell me anything? Or should I look at presence of specific species?

>>7101754
I could create growth curves to determine growth rates over 24 hour periods with non-stop music playing of a particular band. This could work.

>>7102203
It doesn't really snow here, but it's pretty established what salt tolerances are among microbes. Particular extremophiles have adapted themselves to high salt environments and have been studied pretty well, but I don't know of any particular studies on the effects of salt on roads. Interesting.

>>7102466
If you're looking for something quick and dirty you could do something with aerobic or anaerobic growth and look at the effect of varying amount of O2 in a specific environment

Exomicrobiology op. Get deep in the alien game