Uncovering the Surprising Source Behind COVID 19 Testing Methods

It all started when microbiologist Thomas Brock was tramping through Yellowstone in the 1960s and stumbled upon a species of bacteria that would transform medical science. Brock was investigating the tiny lifeforms that managed to eke out a living in the superheated waters of the park's thermal pools. There, he and a student found golden mats of stringy growth in Yellowstone's mushroom spring containing a microbe that produces unusual heat-resistant enzymes. Today, those enzymes are a key component in polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, a method used widely in labs worldwide to study small samples of genetic material by making millions of copies. This technique, which would have been impossible without the discovery of heat-resistant bacteria more than half a century ago, is now being used to boost the signal of viruses in most of the available tests for COVID-19.