10 Study of microorganisms gives Atekwana a big view of tiny matter Little things, enormous impact The widely accepted perception is that no organism affects its environment more than man. After all, it’s easy to point out how we affect our surroundings: dams, pollution, mining and industrial agriculture. OSU professor Estella Atekwana’s research shows that view may be a little selfserving. On planet Earth, it’s the little things that truly matter, says Atekwana, one of the College of Arts and Sciences’ four new Regents professors for 2011. Microorganisms are believed to have been the first life forms on the planet. The byproducts of their biological processes, scientists believe, helped create the atmosphere. And today, the little guys are working away in ways we can’t see. “Sometimes they can transform their environments in a matter of hours, or minutes, days or decades,” says Atekwana, a pioneer of the field concerning such research, biogeophysics. “They work in cooperation, too. We could learn a lot from them if we weren’t spending so much time fighting about our differences rather than learning how our differences complement each other and make us stronger.” Atekwana, originally from Cameroon, studies how microorganisms affect their environment, from the earth’s crust up into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. She’s also a noted expert in plate tectonics, the study of how Earth’s plates shape the planet, creating continents, mountains, ocean basins, volcanic and earthquake belts. Estel la Atekwana bel ieves mankind could learn much by studying some of the planet’s smal lest l i fe forms.
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