Elizabeth Halliday, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program,
takes samples of sand at Wood Neck Beach in Falmouth, Mass., to analyze
in the laboratory. Bacteria that are indicators of fecal contamination
can live and grow in beach sand, and the DNA from microbes living
within this sand will be used to find out how many indicator bacteria
are present. Halliday works in Rebecca Gast's laboratory, and her research is supported by the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health.
(Courtesy of Elizabeth Halliday, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution