Matters Microbial #134: Could Alien Life Use Different Chemistry? July 14, 2026

Today Dr. Morgan Sobol, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Texas State University, joins the Quality Quorum today to discuss how microbes on early earth began interacting with elements like nitrogen, making life possible here and perhaps elsewhere in the universe! You will learn about the fundamental and amazing enzyme nitrogenase!

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Morgan Sobol

Download MM134 (37 MB MP3, 62 mins)

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Links for this episode

• The website for ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of microbiologists.
• The "live" #MattersMicrobial session recorded at ASM Microbe, with Dr. Hannah Reich.
• An essential article about "A World Without Microbes."
• A video version of "A World Without Microbes."
• An introduction to microbial ecology.
• An overview of the enzyme that fixes carbon dioxide into organic matter, Rubisco.
• An overview of the enzyme that converts practically inert dinitrogen gas into bioavailable ammonia, nitrogenase.
• A short essay on metalloenzymes, including nitrogenase.
• An overview of nitrogen fixing microbes, and the strategies they use.
• A review editorial describing the burgeoning field of astrobiology.
• A link to a NASA program exploring early evolution of microbial life.
• An article on the microbially caused Great Oxidation Event that changed our atmosphere eons ago, making life like forms like ours possible.
• An article exploring the evolution of microbial nitrogen fixation.
• An abstract by Dr. Sobol and colleagues, discussing the evolution of nitrogen fixation in an ancient ecological context.
• A lovely article about the microbiology of Yellowstone National Park.
• Dr. Sobol's faculty website.
• Dr. Sobol's interesting research group website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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