A new species of bacteria has been discovered living on solar panels atop the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, which is interesting unless it starts to eat the panels or do something like that. I don’t want my solar panels eaten.
The article about the discovery in the Harvard Gazette (read it here) is good. I like this bit:
“Every time we throw up panels, every time we create new surfaces, not only are there things that can exploit them — like this new species — but you shouldn’t expect that evolution isn’t going to happen and create things that better exploit them over time,” (Aboretum Director) Friedman said. “In urban ecosystems, one might even anticipate that there are accelerated aspects of evolution because you’re presenting nature with new challenges or opportunities.”
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