Marine Biological Laboratory

For further MBL News and Media Information, contact the MBL Communications Office at (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at comm@mbl.edu .

Linda Amaral Zettler to discuss Spain’s “River of Fire”

WOODS HOLE, MA—The MBL Associates will present a Coffee and Conversation on Monday, March 6 at 9:30 AM in the MBL’s (Marine Biological Laboratory’s) Meigs Room, located in the Swope Center, MBL Street, Woods Hole. The event is part of a free series of informal morning lectures about research in the biological sciences. The public is invited to attend. Refreshments will be served.

Linda Amaral Zettler, Assistant Research Scientist at the MBL’s Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, will discuss how she is finding life in a place few expected to find it in a talk titled "Life in a River of Fire."

Amaral Zettler’s lab at the MBL and NASA’s Astrobiology program have undertaken a project to explore the limits of life on Earth as analogues for environments on Mars. Amaral Zettler’s research is centered on the Rio Tinto, a 100 km long river in southwestern Spain that has a highly acidic pH range of 1.7-2.5, high concentrations of heavy metals, and an iron content that is thought to resemble conditions that may exist on Mars. Amaral Zettler has found an ecosystem in the Rio Tinto where organisms endure despite conditions that are usually considered deadly.

Amaral Zettler received her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and was a postdoctoral fellow at the MBL. She holds many distinctions and awards including the National Research Service Award.

Parking for this Coffee and Conversation is available in the MBL’s Bar Neck Road parking lot, located two blocks from the Swope Center on Bar Neck Road. For more information or directions, contact the MBL Communications Office, 508-289-7423.

The MBL Associates support the scientific mission of the MBL through their volunteer efforts to raise funds, and by their gifts to the Annual Fund, assist MBL programs and promote the MBL in the community. The MBL Associates provide fellowships for young scientists, support the MBLWHOI Library, and also help bring the work of the Laboratory to a broader public by sponsoring the Falmouth Forum Series and operating the MBL Gift Shop. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in the Laboratory.

The MBL is an international, independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to improving the human condition through creative research and education in the biological, biomedical and environmental sciences. Founded in 1888 as the Marine Biological Laboratory, the MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the Western Hemisphere. For more information, visit www.mbl.edu.