Graduate students David Fike and Masha Prokopenko

Hands-On Learning
Geobiology course on Catalina breaks new ground at the intersection of life and earth sciences

By Eva Emerson

For the earth science students, it was the first time they had ever isolated bacteria or prepared DNA from a cell. For the biologists, it was the first time they analyzed rocks out in the field. For everyone, a new course in the nascent field of geobiology brought a summer full of firsts.

The six-week hands-on geobiology course, sponsored by the Agouron Institute of Pasadena, brought some 50 students, scientists and instructors to Catalina Island off the California coast to explore and build the rapidly evolving field of geobiology—a synthesis of geology and biology that addresses the intersection of life and earth, air and water.

Hosted by the Wrigley Institute of Environmental Studies, the intensive and often exhausting course introduced graduate students (including five from USC) to current research and methods in geobiology through lecture, lab work, field studies and independent research.

Course planners also aimed to encourage collaborations among established scientists and to provide an opportunity for the development of a common geobiological language that transcends the lexicon of traditional disciplines.

“Geologists and biologists still do not entirely understand each other’s language, and so cannot fully appreciate each other’s research,” says Kurt Hanselmann, co-director of the course and an environmental microbiologist at the University of Zurich. “This course was a first step in bridging the gap between disciplines.”

“This summer course broke new ground for the exciting, emerging field of geobiology, which we believe will become a major area of basic research,” says Mel Simon, a founder of the Agouron Institute who is also the Anne P. and Benjamin F. Biaggini Professor of Biological Sciences at Caltech. “We chose to run the program at USC because the academic and physical resources there are remarkably supportive of this new field.”

The nonprofit Agouron Institute developed and supported the course through an initial gift of $700,000. Agouron will fund the course through the summer of 2004, after which USC will seek other sources of support.

Leading geobiologists were invited to instruct the course, with other top researchers participating in a series of one-day research symposia held over the summer. Students, including nine from outside the United States, were admitted through a competitive process.

“The course brought together the most important players in the field today,” says Anthony Michaels, director of the Wrigley Institute and associate professor of biological sciences, who was key in organizing the course. “Beyond teaching, the course allowed these scientists to get to know each other and build a foundation for the field.”

According to a 2001 report from the National Research Council (NRC), geobiology is one of the most significant and promising areas for basic research in the earth sciences. The NRC report cited the potential impacts that geobiology could have on the understanding of the origins and evolution of life on earth, a main theme in the Agouron Course.

Geobiological studies also could reveal more about the history of the environment, climate change, biological controls of earth processes and the dynamics of the environment. In addition, geobiology has many potential applications in bioremediation, biofilms and the search for life on Mars.

The field has grown in prominence as studies of the interactions between living things and the geochemical environment have led to the realization that the two are surprisingly interdependent. In recent years, geobiology has been energized by discoveries of unusual microorganisms living deep beneath the earth’s surface, the discovery of the important role of microbial communities in the global cycling of elements and major advances in scientific instrumentation.

Until now, few formal training opportunities have been available, so interested students studied traditional fields such as microbiology, biology, geology and geochemistry, or learned directly from mentors. USC College faculty hope to change that: along with the summer course they are actively building a graduate program in geobiology. The program, which has already attracted graduate students and two shared research grants with the USC School of Engineering, will include 10 current faculty plus three more to be hired over the next two years.

“Hosting this course has been terrific for us,” says USC geochemist Will Berelson, associate professor of research in earth sciences, who co-directed the summer course.

USC’s Kenneth Nealson, who holds the Wrigley Chair in Environmental Sciences and Earth Sciences in the College, was involved in the early development of the course with Agouron and also served as an instructor.

Holding the course at the Catalina Island facility had its benefits: first, there were few distractions for students and instructors; and second, the island boasts diverse communities of microbes living in the nearby isthmus, buffalo drinking pond and open ocean.

Each week saw a different set of instructors focus on an aspect of geobiology. In the first week, instructors explored the chemistry of life, examining current thought, research and methods in the study of how nonliving chemicals might have transformed into living molecules, such as the self-replicating nucleic acids. Subsequent weeks dealt with the history and changing chemical environment of the planet through geologic time, and the evolutionary history of microbes and their interaction with the changing environment in prehistoric times.

“We are watching a new field being born,” says Michaels. “It’s exciting stuff.”