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Hi William,
Thank you for your question. Scientists have brought tubeworms back to Woods Hole, but they have all been dead. It is very difficult to keep them alive away from their home in the deep sea. However, scientists are trying to build special homes for the tubeworms so that they could keep them alive in places like Woods Hole. We also try to study the worms as much as possible in the deep sea so that they will stay alive.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jim Holden from the University of Massachusetts
in Amherst, MA

I am in Mrs. Steffen's 10th grade biology class, and I was wondering about the changes in the organisms that you've found since putting them in labs. Do you think that this is an environmental change or a natural species change? Does this show evolution in a species over time, only sped up? Thank you!

Statistically, every time we grow thermophiles in a test tube there is at least one mutation in one of the cells in the tube. As we continue to grow the cells in the lab over and over again, those mutations begin to build up. They usually occur in genes that are not used by the organism in the lab, say if we consistently grow the organisms on just one kind of growth medium. Then, when we try growing them on another medium that they use to grow on, they no longer can do it because of the mutations. In a sense, this is both an environmental change as well as a natural species change (i.e., natural selection and genetic drift). The same processes are likely happening in nature but at a much slower rate.

The organisms that we study in the lab are still the same species, but have had changes occur in their metabolic capabilities.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jim Holden from the University of Massachusetts
in Amherst, MA