What’s this view have to do with you? Read on to find out, through a thread about ecosystem restoration, an amazing discovery, and a scientific revolution.

The message to this story: fund basic science

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The view is from Pleasant Valley Conservancy, near Madison, Wisconsin. Here, Kathie and Tom Brock have restored >50ha of oak savannas, prairies, and wetlands by removing invasive species, prescribed fire, and seeding native plant species

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https://pleasantvalleyconservancy.org/ 

Pleasant Valley Conservancy is one of the most outstanding oak savannas I’ve been to and began as a weekend retreat for Kathie, Tom, and their kids while Tom was a professor of microbiology at the University of Wisconsin

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This brings us to where Tom’s real fame lies. In the 1960’s, while at Indiana University, Tom made an astonishing discovery

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With Hudson Freeze and supported by a grant from the @NSF, Tom discovered that bacteria are living in hot springs like this one in Yellowstone National Park!

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermus_aquaticus#/media/File:A032,_Yellowstone_National_Park,_Wyoming,_USA,_hot_springs,_2001.jpg

We now call these sorts of critters extremophiles, due to their abilities to withstand extreme environmental conditions. Brock and Freeze’s was named Thermus aquaticus and it set off a scientific revolution

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Thermus aquaticus contains an enzyme we now call Taq polymerase. A couple decades after T. aquaticus’ discovery, Tac proved central to the development of a process called Polymerase chain reaction, or PCR

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The reason? It’s all about the heat. PCR uses a heat-driven protein denaturing process and, you guessed it: born in a hot spring, Taq was just the right enzyme for the job

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This kicked off a scientific revolution in microbiology and biotechnology. PCR is used to amplify DNA and has found all kinds of applications, from ancient DNA analysis (how closely are we related to Neanderthals? Thank PCR) to forensic science

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But perhaps PCR’s most important contributions are to the diagnosis of infectious diseases. This includes, you guessed it, the COVID-19 PCR test, which brings the story to you

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If Brock and Freeze hadn’t been supported by a basic science grant from @NSF to make their remarkable discovery in a Yellowstone hot spring, we may not have a key tool at our disposal, keeping each other safe and healthy

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Did Brock and Freeze search for Thermus aquaticus with an eye toward these applications? No - they were learning about the natural world. We can never be sure where such remarkable discoveries will lead us and that's the point.

Fund basic science!

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