Assistant biology professor Michael Travisano studies the evolution of bacteria. Travisano, who recently joined UH's evolutionary biology unit, performs experiments that foster the evolution of bacteria. Besides generating novel forms of pond scum, Travisano's work is changing the way biologists think about evolution. If you walk outside, you see all these different things, like grasses and trees.
Most people just take that for granted.
His work coincides with a renewed interest in experimentally based evolutionary studies. The prestigious science journals Science and Nature recently published his work. Traditional evolutionary biology looks back at history and uses the fossil record to examine how organisms evolve over time and become separate species. But, the fossil record is incomplete and often fails to record the subtle changes that drive evolution. It is hard to get a dynamic perspective because you're left looking at the past.