![\"Winogradsky](\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/79\/2019\/06\/IMG_0884-1024x768.jpg\")
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One thing I like about working at WHOI is the rich oceanographic history\u2026I can\u2019t take any personal credit for it, but I\u2019m proud to be a little part of it. And it sometimes affects my daily life in fun and interesting ways. I\u2019m currently co-teaching our Introduction to Biological Oceanography Class, and as a project, we decided to build some\u00a0Winogradsky columns<\/a>. These are columns of marine sediments that incubate over some period of time and typically develop visible bands \u2013 like a layer cake \u2013 resulting from distinct microbial metabolic pathways\u2026aerobic and anaerobic, photosynthetic and heterotrophic, wonderful variations of oxidation and reduction of carbon, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen and iron. They aren\u2019t necessarily high-tech. I was planning to build ours in some old spaghetti jars\u2026<\/p>\n <\/span> The columns are still maturing. So far we can see oxic and anoxic layers, some algae on the sides, and maybe some sulfate reduction. We\u2019re waiting to see if we develop other layers, such as purple and green sulfur bacteria. And I think I still have things to learn about setting up a \u201cgood\u201d sediment column. But like Holger, I\u2019m an experimentalist, so there\u2019s always room to improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One thing I like about working at WHOI is the rich oceanographic history\u2026I can\u2019t take any personal credit for it, but I\u2019m proud to be a little part of it. And it sometimes affects my daily life in fun and interesting ways. I\u2019m currently co-teaching our Introduction to Biological Oceanography Class, and as a project,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":919,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2026So I waded out into the mud, filled my bucket and headed back to the lab. As I was hosing off my boots, I ran into a colleague. We started talking about the Winogradsky columns, and he said, \u201cI think I\u2019ve got something for you! There\u2019s an old rack of tubes in the warehouse that belonged for\u00a0Holger Jannasch<\/a>, and I think that\u2019s exactly what they are for.\u201d He brought back a dusty, rickety custom rack holding half a dozen perfectly-fitted beautiful (but similarly dusty) glass tubes. It felt magical. Holger Jannasch was a pioneer in the field of deep-sea microbiology, and I can\u2019t think of any cooler way to use his old labware to teach students about sedimentary chemistry.<\/p>\n