Episode Details

Matters Microbial #137: The Living Skin of Our Planet August 25, 2026

Today Dr. Estelle Couradeau, Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University, joins the quality quorum today to discuss the role that the soil microbiome can play in terms of agriculture, moderating temperature, and protecting specific environments.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Estelle Couradeau

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Links for this episode

• The Erskine Foundation fellowship website.
• An overview of Paenibacillus.
• An article discussing the fascinating colonial morphology often found with Paenbacillus.
• A blog post that demonstrates that the odd appearance of Paenibacillus can be used by other microbes for dispersal!
• Dr. Jo Handelsman's essential book, "A World Without Soil."
• A fine video describing the soil microbiome.
• The complexity of soil with regard to where and how microbes can live.
• Science journalist Carl Zimmer's indispensable essay likening the microbial ecology of lakes to the human body: "The Human Lake."
• An overview of dormancy in microbes.
• The "BonCat" (bio-orthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging) technique for detecting living microbes in a sample without cultivation.
• An overview of flow cytometry in microbiology.
• An essay suggesting that marine bacteria are involved in the production of clouds.
• An article about climate change and microbes.
• An article about cyanobacteria and "sunscreen."
• A review article about the "biocrust" concept.
• A video overview of beautiful and fascinating microbial fossils: stromatolites.
• A video by Dr. Couradeau describing her research.
• Articles by Dr. Couradeau and colleagues asking which microbes are active in soil: