I'm actually still in school...i feel as if i'll never finish...every time i complete a degree i just want to keep digging...looks like i'm going for the Ph.D. Thankfully school is WAY cheaper up in Canada than in the U.S....i'd owe like 100 grand if i were down south. TBH microbiology only comes in handy in the garden and in the kitchen (beer, cheese, bread)...and of course at parties when i want to sound smart, which can be useful cause i'm not.
sounds interesting for sure. people often ask me now that i'm getting to be "the old guy", what it is i would do differently if i could do "it" all over again. after much careful and honest thought my answer is, "i'd spend more time getting a formal education. i'd get a phd". that's my do-over answer - i'd spend more time learning. have you decided on your field yet? your dissertation? congratz. i think that's way kewl.
So if my memoirs go through, i'd have a master's in microbiology (you'd be suprised at how little you actually know about a subject when you are a ''master'', seem's like you know just enough to realise you know nothing...) But for my Ph.D i'm thinking of working on mycorrhizal associations with black pine and various moss's (tundra) on the north coast of the St-Laurence river. I'd like to find a way (i should say better way, cause i'm working off other people's work) to use mycorrhizae for reforestation purposes. Hopefully i can find a way for reforestation to actually heal the land, most of a time they just plant one kind of tree so they can harvest it in 30 years or so (depending on the species). And those are only the places where trucks can actually go....some forest's were completely destroyed during the flooding (hydro dams), all the top soil has been washed away to bear rock (Canadian shield), and those area's are only accessible by plane/canoe or helicopter. So replanting is not an option. What i want to do is mimic the way those tree's got there in the first place, first bacteria will digest the rock, next small plants will grow, then they decay...eventually soil is created and finally black pine grow (after a fire generally speaking)...we just want to accelerate the process by dropping the right combination of bacteria and fungi from a plane. The best part is being paid to go on 30 day long ultra-deep-backcountry canoe trips.
I was just reading about how trees can have a huge impact in combating climate change. We really need to start planting trees everywhere on this planet.
Yea I bet you’ve forgot more stuff than Ive ever known about microbiology. All I know is that when the worms are happy the soils moist and microbe life is being nourished the plants are usually flourishing when this happens. Idk an amoeba from a flagella to be honest but I know they’re in there doing their thing when things are going well.
sounds like a grand plan @Dreadhed. bird scat and other animal scat is responsible for tree growth all over the planet it seems. seems like a brilliant idea. good luck with that!