Over the course of billions of years, microbes learned to eat and breathe rocks. Today, we use microbes to extract metals of economic interest from rocks and, conversely, to help clean up metal-contaminated sites. Microbes colonize nearly all surfaces, including our skin, but are also found deep down in the subsurface of continents and oceans.

In her lecture “Geomicrobiology: The art of Shaping the Earth” Kirsten Küsel, Professor of Aquatic Geomicrobiology at the University of Jena, will talk about a new understanding of life on Earth from the fascinating perspective of tiny microbes.

The lecture takes place on the occasion of the exhibition “Contemporary Diagram – Berlin” by the Swedish artist Cecilia Jonsson, which will be presented at the Schering Stiftung from September 29 to November 26, 2018.