Guest speaker to discuss extremophiles in the Great Salt Lake

By Shelby Ruud

Studying life in the Great Salt Lake could help scientists know if it’s possible for life to exist on other planets, according to a microbiologist.

“Studying life at the edge, the limits of where life can exist, is critical to understanding if life can exist on other planets or space bodies,” said Bonnie Baxter, a director of the Great Salt Lake Institute and a biology professor at Westminster College.

Baxter will give a presentation on life forms in the Great Salt Lake, called extremophiles, on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Eccles Science Learning Center room 130 on the Utah State University campus.

“Extremophiles are microbes that can live in extreme conditions,” Baxter said. “They thrive at the edge of what we find tolerable. We have isolated microbes on Earth that come from high heat, frozen ice, high sulfur, extreme pH, extreme radiation and, my favorite, high salt.”

Baxter said that studying these microbes is important because it will lead to a better understanding of the potential of life on other planets.

“We used to think life could not exist on Mars because it was too cold, or there was too much radiation or limited water,” she said. “We now know of examples of extremophile life on Earth that can handle each of those conditions. It really opens the door to important questions about life in the universe.”

Baxter’s presentation is a part of Science Unwrapped, a presentation series hosted by USU’s College of Science. Her talk is the last of four presentations of the Science Unwrapped series “Great Salt Lake Today.” In the fall of 2015, the presentation series will be titled “Bridging Troubled Waters.”

The Science Unwrapped presentations are focused on water because of the university’s year-long celebration of the “Year of Water.”

“The ‘Year of Water’ is meant to raise awareness about water issues and water science,” said Charles Hawkins, a professor in USU’s Department of Watershed Sciences. “Emphasizing regional research is a part of that.”

Baxter hopes to get people excited about the Great Salt Lake.

“It is a treasure, and often overlooked in that capacity by the locals,” Baxter said. “It has much to offer us, with many lessons that go beyond science.”

Baxter's presentation will be followed by hands-on learning activities, exhibits and refreshments

More information about Science Unwrapped and Baxter’s presentation can be found at http://www.usu.edu/science/unwrapped/.