{"588616":{"#nid":"588616","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"The Microbiome of the Clouds","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBacteria in the soil can hitch a ride on raindrops and be deposited into the air once the drops pop, according to a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/ncomms14668\u0022\u003Erecent study in Nature Communications\u003C\/a\u003E. Under the right wind conditions, some of these bacteria could be lifted even higher into the sky.\u0026nbsp;But what happens once microbes are in the atmosphere?\u0026nbsp;Atmospheric chemist \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/people\/Athanasios_Nenes\u0022\u003EAthanasios Nenes\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor with the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,\u0026nbsp;is currently collecting\u0026nbsp;samples of the airborne microbiome in the troposphere\u0026nbsp;five to nine miles above the Eastern Mediterranean. So far he\u0026nbsp;has found a mix of 17 different taxa of bacteria. Nenes, along with EAS professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/people\/Rodney_Weber\u0022\u003ERodney Weber\u003C\/a\u003E and other researchers, also\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1021\/acs.analchem.6b01264\u0022\u003Ehelped develop a unique instrument\u003C\/a\u003E to measure bioavailable phosphate ions in atmospheric particles. Bioavailable phosphate can act as a fertilizer for the oceans, with profound impacts for ocean life and the carbon cycle.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2017-03-13 14:28:06","changed_gmt":"2017-03-13 15:08:10","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"service award recipients","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/sciencefriday.com\/segments\/the-microbiome-of-the-clouds\/","dateline":{"date":"2017-03-10T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2017-03-10T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"536361":{"id":"536361","type":"image","title":"Athanasios Nenes","body":null,"created":"1463590800","gmt_created":"2016-05-18 17:00:00","changed":"1488479051","gmt_changed":"2017-03-02 18:24:11","alt":"","file":{"fid":"89460","name":"nenes.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nenes.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nenes.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1406064,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/nenes.jpg?itok=nQ3ECYXj"}}},"media_ids":["536361"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"166926","name":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"},{"id":"56541","name":"Athanasios Nenes"},{"id":"171762","name":"Rodney Weber"},{"id":"2262","name":"climate"},{"id":"7598","name":"clouds"},{"id":"7077","name":"bacteria"},{"id":"11544","name":"atmospheric chemistry"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}