The News:
Snow Flurries, Bacteria Likely
by Christopher Joyce
All Things Considered, March 3, 2008 · Next time you're in a snowstorm, look up — and get a face-full of bacteria. It turns out there are bacteria up in the clouds, and some of them actually create ice crystals.
The inspiration for this research started in Montana. Brent Christner had a colleague there who was puzzled by some nasty plant bacteria that kept infecting his wheat crops. No matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of them. He suspected they might be airborne. So, Christner says, his friend cooked up a strange experiment involving a petri dish and an airplane.
He flew up in the airplane, "opened a window and held a petri plate outside," Christner explains. And in fact, bacteria grew.
The bacteria — which normally live on plants — were falling out of the sky. more...
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.
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