Tuesday February 22: A Field Trip, and Project Success!

Matt Reyes arrived last night from San Francisco.  He is NASA’s education/ public outreach coordinator for the expedition.

We went out in the field with Professor Asma Al Farraj Al Ketbi and some of her students from United Arab Emirates University.  We were looking at hypolithic cyanobacteria on the gravel plains near the border with Oman.  The students were very gracious, and very engaged.  It was fun spending time with them. 

On a gravel plain near the Jebel Hafeet we set up another installment of Drake High’s Artificial Hypoliths Project.  Sixty glass, marble and travertine squares were left on the desert floor for a few years with nobody for company but camels.  In time, some one will recover them to see if bacterial cells have colonized the undersides.