Yellowstone's Surprising Role in COVID 19 Testing Revealed

Now, did you know a key ingredient in coronavirus tests comes from Yellowstone's lakes? It all started when microbiologist Thomas Brock was tramping through Yellowstone in the 1960s and stumbled upon a species of bacteria that would transform medical science. However, the Yellowstone has played a huge role in fighting the virus. Today, those enzymes are a key component in polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, a method used widely in labs worldwide to study small samples of genetic material by making millions of copies. This technique, which would have been impossible without the discovery of heat-resistant bacteria more than half a century ago, is now being used to boost the signal of viruses in most of the available tests for COVID-19.