What if fog isn’t just misty air, but a living ecosystem?
What if fog isn’t just misty air, but a living ecosystem?
This question hung over cloud researcher Thi Thuong Thuong Cao. As a PhD student at Arizona State University, her curiosity led her from knocking on the doors of microbiologists and chemists, to sampling fog before sunrise in Pennsylvania, to hours of peering through a lab’s microscope. And she found her answer.
Her ASU research team found that bacteria floating in tiny fog droplets are alive, growing and — quite helpfully — breaking down pollutants in the air.
Read More at: Arizona State University
A foggy field in Pennsylvania has a little secret — its suspended water droplets form a habitat for helpful bacteria that eat air toxins. (Photo Credit: Thi Thuong Thuong Cao)
