(I start 21 seconds in) Narration of a Science Film
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
it is more than 7000 feet. 5600 her. In Butte, Montana, an anthropogenic disaster is incubating some very peculiar life. At its peak, the Berkeley Pit mine produced 15% of the world's copper. Now it sits filled with highly acidic groundwater contaminated with heavy metals, and the water is toxic enough to kill. In 1995 a flock of Snuggies landed on the pit on their migration route. Bad weather prevented their departure, and days later hundreds of goose corpses were found washed up on the indictment. One year later, an algae covered stick was found floating in the pit. Scientists began to investigate what else was growing in the water, and they found strange microbes. I'm Dr Andrea Sterling and a research professor at the University of Montana. My husband, Don and I was also a research professor have been working with microbes from a most unusual environment. Toxic conditions of the pit water are similar to the conditions of diseased human cells. Berkeley pit microbes have evolved to produce compounds that allow them to survive in these highly acidic conditions. The Sterlings have isolated some of these compounds from microbes in the pit and they have shown activity in fighting human disease. They have the potential to stop certain kinds of cancer from spreading, to fight cell inflammation related to numerous diseases and to pull toxic heavy metals out of the water. The Sterlings have also discovered a new class of antibiotics. The Sterlings have searched extensively for organic compounds with biomedical potential. We've looked in the bark of trees. We've looked in the interstitial spaces, plants. We've looked to end the cells of sponges. We've simply looked in seawater. We've looked in soil. These microbes in this toxic landscape are producing compounds with these types of discipline applications at a much higher level than any other kind of population of organists. Never looked existence of potentially beneficial life coming from the pit is no reason to justify the preservation of it or to be careless about managing mining sites in the future. But it is still a fascinating juxtaposition of elements, and the scientific findings are compelling. What a provocative paradox. Humans created this strange anthropogenic landscape that is toxic enough to kill animals. And yet microbes have adapted to this new environment and even produced compounds that can help us survive disease