The Life of Bacteria at KAUST

Since I have been asked a number of times to share some of my top-secret research, I have finally given in and will try to educate the sheep (Jesus tried and failed, so I guess it's my turn now).

Bacteria are unicellular, small, and often round, beings that like to eat and produce energy. Similar to humans, these beings are driven by the need to reproduce, but since they have no legs, they cannot go about it in the conservative christian fashion. Instead, Bacteria perform something that scientists call asexual reproduction. The process is fairly complicated, but the outcome is simple: 1 bacterium divides into 2 bacteria.

Click on the picture above to have an accredited Youtube actor explain it with the help of visual cues. I know that reading and comprehending is difficult!

These little beasts can be found everywhere: in the soil, in the trees, in the air, in your own body, and even in the Red Sea. Particularly in the Red Sea actually. You can imagine the Red Sea as being very similar to your standard bacteria soup, one tea spoon of it contains millions of different bacteria that all get along. Whales love bacteria and eat them for breakfast. 

Since I am working in the Red Sea Research Center, one of our main concerns is trying to understand what kind of bacteria are actually in this Red Sea Soup. Who is the most abundant, who is the coolest, who is the strongest, who is the most exotic, and who is the most extreme, are just some of the questions your typical Red Sea Scientist will ask himself/herself.

I know that I promised to lift the secret of the reproductive method of the giant bacterium E. fishelsoni, but that result will take more time. Instead I would like to focus on a tiny bacteria called SAR11. With a size of less than 0.3 micrometers (1 million micrometer = 1 meter), this beast is the most abundant bacteria in all of the oceans, making up around 60% of the total bacterial population. However, SAR11 highly dislikes growing in the laboratory and has resisted scientific characterization since we took off our monkey suit way back when. Well, it is this bacterium that my supervisor is trying to get cultivated, characterized, and civilized, a task I am doing my best to assist her with.

So far, I have been given a number of bacterial strains (i.e. bacteria families including the extended family) to keep alive and have also been given the engineering task of getting a 6-chamber bioreactor up and running. This bioreactor will be able to do a lot of our work (inshallah), and is going to be responsible for the transcriptomic studies (the study of which miniscule machines [proteins] the bacteria are producing to survive different environmental conditions).

6 chamber Bioreactor "Multifor 2" from Infors Inc

Now I don't want to overwhelm you by revealing my results ahead of time, such as by saying that bacteria actually have feelings and that brushing your teeth is a crime, so I will continue this post once I have drawn up some more definitive conclusions.

As-Salamu Alaykum ( "Peace be Upon you" )

Greetings from the other side of the world.

It has been a while since my last entry, but the process of becoming familiar with this place has sped up the passing of my days. Yesterday, I had to renew my Visa for the first time, which marks the completion of one whole month in Saudi Arabia, and means that I have two more months left.

But I'm not writing this to get sentimental...

Being a white, single, christian male with a government visa (as opposed to having a residency card) has afforded me with the highest degrees of freedom a person can have in the greatest of kingdoms. I am allowed to leave campus alone, I do not have to wear traditional clothing, I do not have to pray 5 times a day in the direction of Mekkah, I have a certain cultural error leniency, I can make decisions, and I can drive a car.

What I am trying to say, is that I work during the week (which means Saturday through Wednesday), and when weekend comes (Thursday and Friday) I leave Campus to discover Saudia Arabia.

 Hold on tight as I share a rather unusual adventure:

2 Weekends ago, we organized a Trip to a town called Ta'if, situated at 1800 meters on the slopes of the Sarawat Mountains, the largest mountain range in the Arabian Peninsula. The area around Ta'if is a popular summer destination for Saudi's, as the temperature is very mild at 30 degrees and the air is completely dry.

                                                                            The road up to Ta'if  

An hour's drive north of Ta'if, we took the highway exit and find ourself driving on a rundown road running straight into the desert. At the end of this road there is a rickety iron gate, which stood open at the time of our arrival. When we got inside, we had finally reached our destination, and getting up at 5 in the morning had paid off!

Ladies and Gentlement, I present to you the fabled Camel Races of Saudia Arabia, the equivalent to Nascar driving in the USA!

As luck would have it, we had arrived on the day that the Saudia National Guard sponsored (conducted?) the races, and we had entered into their compound (through the rickety iron gate). The army general in charge (dressed in camouflage, which means in the color of sand) came up to us and bestowed us with the traditional As-Salamu Alaykum greetting, promptly followed by an offer of protection during the races. The whole rest of the day we were kept close to the military and shown around by them.

Dates and Tea in the Military compound  (look in the back left corner of the picture, shhh)

And then the camel races began! 

The Setup of a camel race: There is a 10 kilometer track that is about 30 meters wide, and runs straight through the desert. The idea is that you follow the race by driving next to the camels as they run down the track (at 30 to 50 km/h). The right side of the track was open to the general public, and hundreds of cars were throwing up dust on that side. The left was the side reserved for the military, and the one that we were one. A race lasts around 20 minutes.

We were actually offered a ride for the race, and one of the military guys drove up in a camouflage bus (I believe it is a renovated US school bus) and motioned for us to get in. In this fashion, we were able to watch the camels race not even 5 meters away from us.

As a small side note, Saudi National Television was there (the equivalent of ESPN in the USA) to film this event live. After the first race, a guy dressed in a white robe asked us to come with him, handed us a microphone, pointed one of those big cameras at us, gave us a count down, and told us to talk. We were being filmed live on Saudi TV, the only white people in a 50 kilometer radius. I must admit, it was somewhat awkward to stand in front of a live TV show, just talking about random camel race things, since there was no one there who spoke English and could have asked us interview questions.

We returned to campus around 1 in the morning, exhausted as usual.