Research

Cady Lab Research

$Research Interests The research of Dr. Cady and her students focuses on the biogeochemical interactions between microorganisms and their environment. This knowledge provides a framework for understanding how microoganisms have influenced their environment throughout time, and visa versa. The group uses a variety of imaging, structural and chemical analytical methods to detect evidence of microbial life (i.e. biosignatures) in the geological rock record. This work applies directly to paleobiological and geomicrobiological studies of life on Earth and on other planets. The Geomicrobiology and Electron Microscopy (GEM) Laboratory group is involved in a number of interdisciplinary projects that involve working across a wide range of temporal (Archean to modern) and spatial (global to angstrom) scales. Since microbial biosignatures are preserved in sediments, aqueous mineral precipitates, and in the cracks and crevices of altered rocks, numerous opportunities to gain significant insight into biogeochemical processes using imaging, diffraction, and spectroscopic methods exist. Significant findings to date include the discovery that hyperthermophilic biofilms contribute to the morphogenesis of high-temperature siliceous sinters (Cady & Farmer, 1996), and that freshwater carbonate microbialites that display fabrics similar to those found in early Cambrian marine carbonates are forming today (Laval et al., 2000). Brief descriptions of current projects in the Cady GEM Laboratory can be obtained using the links given below.$