I led an anchorage to the east coast to become a microbiologist. At the Montana border, I declared my business to the American border agent: “I go to Johns Hopkins to become a microbiologist.”
“What is a microbiologist doing?” asked the border agent.
This is a great question. I probably gave a terrible answer. Now that I spent a few years being microbiologist, I will try to answer them.
As a microbiologist, I study microbes – small creatures with big effects. The microbes are everywhere: in the air, in the earth, in the water, in our body. I am particularly interested in microbes that resemble bacteria but whose basic machines are similar to complex organisms like us; These microbes are called archaea. How do the viruses manage this, since they rely on the host’s resources to do more of themselves? How do they divert machines that have bacterial and human characteristics? We don’t know. My job is to collect and interpret evidence to discover it.
Research as this produces both abstract theories and practical tools. By studying the archaea, scientists have improved our understanding of kinship between species and found a cheap way to identify all the microbes in any sample, whether from a glacier or a medical patient for diagnoses. And by studying viruses, scientists have explored the very definition of life and established many fundamental principles of biology, in the identification of DNA as a molecule of heritage and how it can be manipulated for industrial production of enzymes. As a more microbiologist, I hope that my own research will continue this model: to give meaning to the world and make tools to help us cross.
Research would not be possible without federal support. This does not take much: the National Institutes of Health, AKA NIH, consumes less than 1% of federal spending. This small budget has great effects, changing and saving lives. Even my own involvement in research began in the anchoring of the University of Alaska through subsidies based in NIH and NASA. Now, as a doctoral student, I am supported by the National Science Foundation, or NSF, and the NIH. By paying invoices for scientists, materials and crucial general costs, federal funding facilitates scientific discovery and training for the next generations of scientists.
Alaska directly benefits from the federal government funded. In 2024, Alaska received $ 47.6 million from the NSF and $ 14.8 million in NIH, more other branches in the national ocean and atmospheric administration, or NOAA, and US Geological Survey, alias USGS. These agencies help Alaska increase energy efficiency; predict and plan weather conditions and natural disasters; And maintain animal environments and populations for hunting, fishing and tourism. The federal funding of science creates jobs in Alaska and helps our universities to train professionals for health and the economy of Alaska – nurses, doctors, engineers, biologists. These are only a few ways that science financed by the federal government serves the Alaskians.
These services and more could now be lost. All these agencies – NIH, NSF, Noaa, USGS, NASA – are targets of massive financing gels and budget cuts. These random cuts will be catastrophic, both for Alaska and the nation. If you do not want to lose the services provided by science, then talk – show that you care.
How do we do that? Talk to your representatives at the Congress. Talk to your friends. Talk about science and budget cuts. Is it enough to make a difference? I am not sure, but as a microbiologist, I am inclined to believe in small creatures with great effects.
Matthew Isada is a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studies the molecular biology of Archée viruses.
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