Post by Taylor on Nov 28, 2006 23:25:14 GMT -5
NKU professor's journey coming to television
Terry Duennes
November 28, 2006
Northern Kentucky University biology professor Hazel Barton will help turn "The Lost World" from fiction to fact in a nationally televised documentary in December. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conjured up images of dinosaurs still roaming a remote part of Venezuela in his famous 1912 novel "The Lost World."
The novel was inspired by real-life 19th century explorations of mile-high, flat-topped mountains there and speculation that the area might be at an evolutionary standstill, some sort of lost world. Barton, along with three other scientists, an explorer and a folklore expert, spent three weeks in "The Lost World" terrain of Venezuela a year ago filming a documentary titled "The Real Lost World."
The first hour of the two-hour documentary will be shown Dec. 10 on the Animal Planet cable television network and the second hour shown Dec. 17. The film also will be shown Dec. 14 on the Discovery HD Theatre TV network.
Barton and her team didn't find any dinosaurs, but Barton - an expert on cave microbiology - explored caves there and found some heretofore unknown microbial activity that may help explain life on Mars. "I found microbes eating quartzite rocks, chewing into those hard rocks," she said. "The microbes spit minerals into the air, and the minerals float on air currents and land on things like spider webs, creating bizarre formations. It's been known that microbes can do this in hot springs, but it's novel to see this happening at low temperatures. This is an energy-starved environment, but the microbes found ways to generate energy. It might give us a clue about what reactions were happening billions of years ago. It could help us look for microfossils in other environments, possibly Mars, and help us understand activity on Mars that we previously thought not possible."
Barton's collaborators at NASA are excited by the recent discoveries and a return scientific expedition has been funded by the Kentucky Space Grant Consortium.
Barton said she enjoyed her three-week stay in the so-called "Table Mountains" that include mile-high Mount Roraima near the triple border of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.
Full Article
Terry Duennes
November 28, 2006
Northern Kentucky University biology professor Hazel Barton will help turn "The Lost World" from fiction to fact in a nationally televised documentary in December. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conjured up images of dinosaurs still roaming a remote part of Venezuela in his famous 1912 novel "The Lost World."
The novel was inspired by real-life 19th century explorations of mile-high, flat-topped mountains there and speculation that the area might be at an evolutionary standstill, some sort of lost world. Barton, along with three other scientists, an explorer and a folklore expert, spent three weeks in "The Lost World" terrain of Venezuela a year ago filming a documentary titled "The Real Lost World."
The first hour of the two-hour documentary will be shown Dec. 10 on the Animal Planet cable television network and the second hour shown Dec. 17. The film also will be shown Dec. 14 on the Discovery HD Theatre TV network.
Barton and her team didn't find any dinosaurs, but Barton - an expert on cave microbiology - explored caves there and found some heretofore unknown microbial activity that may help explain life on Mars. "I found microbes eating quartzite rocks, chewing into those hard rocks," she said. "The microbes spit minerals into the air, and the minerals float on air currents and land on things like spider webs, creating bizarre formations. It's been known that microbes can do this in hot springs, but it's novel to see this happening at low temperatures. This is an energy-starved environment, but the microbes found ways to generate energy. It might give us a clue about what reactions were happening billions of years ago. It could help us look for microfossils in other environments, possibly Mars, and help us understand activity on Mars that we previously thought not possible."
Barton's collaborators at NASA are excited by the recent discoveries and a return scientific expedition has been funded by the Kentucky Space Grant Consortium.
Barton said she enjoyed her three-week stay in the so-called "Table Mountains" that include mile-high Mount Roraima near the triple border of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.
Full Article