Today, Dr. Roland Hatzenpichler of Montana State University joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the central importance of archaea to our knowledge of the microbial world, ranging from history of their study, misconceptions about archaea, the microbiological bounty of Yellowstone National Park, and how ancient archaea may be the Asgard like ancestors of us all.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Roland Hatzenpichler

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Links for this episode

• A solid video describing the archaea.
• A wonderful if dated (ASM, you need to make an updated version) video about the contributions of Carl Woese to the description of the archaea.
• An essay by yours truly about Carl Woese (and the only time I will EVER be published in the journal RNA Biology.)
• A more solid essay about Carl Woese.
• A MUST READ article by Ed Yong on the role that Norm Pace has played in understanding the microbial world.
• An article about the role Yellowstone National Park has played in microbiology.
• An article about the wonderful “underwater oasis” called “Asgard.”
• A wonderful article by Ed Yong about what could be our remote ancestors, the Lokiarcheota.  
• The first paper that was mentioned:  Carl Woese’s discovery of the archaea. 
• From the second group of articles that were mentioned:  archaea are everywhere.
• From the third group of articles that were mentioned:  archaea drive biogeochemical cycles.
• From the fourth group of articles that were mentioned:  Lokiarcheota may bridge the gap between prokaryote and eukaryote.
• A video on extremophiles from Dr. Hatzenpichler.
• Dr. Hatzenpichler’s faculty profile.
• Dr. Hatzenpichler’s quite wonderful laboratory website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to mattersmicrobial@gmail.com