Cyanobacterial diversity from two geographical areas of Baja California Sur, Mexico, were studied: Bahia Concepcion, and Ensenada de Aripez. The sites included hypersaline ecosystems, sea bottom, hydrothermal springs, and a shrimp farm. In this report we describe four new morphotypes, two are marine epilithic from Bahia Concepcion, Dermocarpa sp. and Hyella sp. The third, Geitlerinema sp., occu...

Hot springs have been investigated since the XIX century, but isolation and examination of their thermophilic microbial inhabitants did not start until the 1950s. Many thermophilic microorganisms and their viruses have since been discovered, although the real complexity of thermal communities was envisaged when research based on PCR amplification of the 16S rRNA genes arose. Thereafter, the pos...

Thermal adaptation theory predicts that thermal specialists evolve in environments with low temporal and high spatial thermal variation, whereas thermal generalists are favored in environments with high temporal and low spatial variation. The thermal environment of many organisms is predicted to change with globally increasing temperatures and thermal specialists are presumably at higher risk t...

We present the design and analysis of a MEMS variable capacitor coupled to thermal actuators. The variable capacitor is composed by two main components: 1) the capacitor built by two squared plates, which one plate is mechanically fixed to the substrate and the other is a moving plate having mechanical suspensions (springs) connected from each corner of it to the substrate, and 2) a set of ther...

The isolation of a new thermophilic bacterium, Thermus aquaticus gen. n. and sp. n., is described. Successful enrichment requires incubation at 70 to 75 C, and the use of nutrient media relatively dilute with respect to the organic components. Strains of T. aquaticus have been isolated from a variety of thermal springs in Yellowstone National Park and from a thermal spring in California. The or...

AISI 301 stainless steel is a frequently used metal, especially in high temperature demands and or in part with high corrosion risk. Thin spring steel plates can be used as expansions of heat furnaces insulation and variety of all other springs. The present study has assessed the effects of temperature and thermal treatment time span on the microstructure of stainless steel 301 to achieve elast...

The upper thermal tolerance (CT(max)) of beachfleas Orchestia gammarellus (Pallas) collected from a number of different locations in Iceland was determined. Differences were recorded between field populations associated with thermal springs and those from non-thermal sites. A number of reciprocal acclimation experiments (where animals from thermal and non-thermal sites were acclimated to the me...