Jessie Griffith ’19 with our ancient ancestors, the thrombolites, on the coast of Newfoundland, Canada

Happy new year, nerds! Make a resolution to get smarter this year and learn from your brilliant and talented peers right here on the Hill with Kernel, my audio odyssey exploring the hidden world of academic research at Kenyon College! President Decatur approved:

This week, I hung out in Dr. Slonczewski’s microbiology lab with Jessie Griffith ’19 and learned all about the weird, squiggly world of our unicellular rulers, the prokaryotes. Who are your favorite little bugs? What can we learn from microbes? What is pH? Could there be multiple solutions to the conundrum of making energy in a harsh environment? Are there microbes in space? Are you really you, or are you your bacteria? All this and more with Jessie on an infectiously exciting episode of Kernel.

If you want to learn more about Jessie’s work, check out her very first peer-reviewed first author journal publication. We’re so proud of Jessie and the entire Slonczewski lab!

If you want to experience a whole lot of more of Jessie’s and my collective nerdiness, come to biojournal club next Thursday at noon in Fischman 103 (first floor of Higley Hall.) Several times throughout the semester, we gather together biology faculty and students to read and discuss hot topics in science over piping hot pizza!

Read more about my inspirations behind the show in Ben Hunkler’s article for the communications department.

If you know someone who would make a great guestpert on the show, comment below, AND if you yourself want to share your hard work with the Kenyon community, please get in touch! I’ve still got a whole long semester of learnin’ to do, and I want to learn from you.

Stay nerdy, my friends! And feed your gut bacteria. They need you, they love you, and they really want oreos.