Karen Lloyd
@karenlloyd.bsky.social
Subsurface microbiologist/biogeochemist, runner, laugher, wife, parent, TED speaker, Wrigley Prof. at U. Southern California, she/her, got a book coming out in May 2025 called INTRAterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
ICYMI: @karenlloyd.bsky.social appeared on CBC Quirks and Quarks this weekend, discussing Intraterrestrials and some of her amazing adventures across the globe. Check it out:
Oct 4: Life at the limits, and more... | CBC Radio
On this week's episode: remembering Jane Goodall, seeing colours in our brains, new evidence of life on Mars and intraterrestrial life at the limits
www.cbc.ca
October 6, 2025 at 3:08 PM
ICYMI: @karenlloyd.bsky.social appeared on CBC Quirks and Quarks this weekend, discussing Intraterrestrials and some of her amazing adventures across the globe. Check it out:
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
How does lava sound when it comes to the surface of the Earth? Listen to a lava flow oozing out of its effusive vent high on the southwestern side of #Etna, 28 August 2025. That day no visits by tourists were allowed on the site, which permitted this (relatively) clean recording
August 30, 2025 at 5:46 PM
How does lava sound when it comes to the surface of the Earth? Listen to a lava flow oozing out of its effusive vent high on the southwestern side of #Etna, 28 August 2025. That day no visits by tourists were allowed on the site, which permitted this (relatively) clean recording
If you find yourself in the Malibu area this Wednesday (9/3), feel free to join me for an evening of talking about the strangest Intraterrestrials on Earth! The event is free, but an RSVP is requested. www.malibucity.org/722/Malibu-L...
Malibu Library Speaker Series | Malibu, CA - Official Website
Find out more about the schedule and exciting presenters in the Malibu Library Speaker Series.
www.malibucity.org
September 1, 2025 at 6:15 PM
If you find yourself in the Malibu area this Wednesday (9/3), feel free to join me for an evening of talking about the strangest Intraterrestrials on Earth! The event is free, but an RSVP is requested. www.malibucity.org/722/Malibu-L...
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Jones: I want to bring theology into this because you have all these people that want to give thoughts and prayers. But I was a minister, and that is a form of theological malpractice—when you pray for something you have the power to change.
August 30, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Jones: I want to bring theology into this because you have all these people that want to give thoughts and prayers. But I was a minister, and that is a form of theological malpractice—when you pray for something you have the power to change.
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Asgard archaea frozen in Siberia appear to have remained alive for more than 100,000 years based on DNA analysis. Genetic overlap with other Asgards suggests astonishingly long lifespans could be common trait among the closest living relatives of all eukaryotes. Per @karenlloyd.bsky.social etal.🧪
We are unlocking how frozen microbes stay alive for 100,000 years
Microbes found buried deep in Siberian permafrost may be able to survive over extremely long timescales using protein repair genes
www.newscientist.com
August 26, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Asgard archaea frozen in Siberia appear to have remained alive for more than 100,000 years based on DNA analysis. Genetic overlap with other Asgards suggests astonishingly long lifespans could be common trait among the closest living relatives of all eukaryotes. Per @karenlloyd.bsky.social etal.🧪
Great new article about the cool stuff we're finding (improbably) alive deep inside Earth's crust! Nice work, @laurapoppick.bsky.social at @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/the-pursuit-...
The Pursuit of Life Where It Seems Unimaginable | Quanta Magazine
A decade ago, Karen Lloyd discovered single-celled microbes living beneath the seafloor. Now she studies how they can survive in Earth’s crust, possibly for hundreds or thousands of years, and push li...
www.quantamagazine.org
August 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Great new article about the cool stuff we're finding (improbably) alive deep inside Earth's crust! Nice work, @laurapoppick.bsky.social at @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/the-pursuit-...
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
International Seabed Authority to investigate The Metals Company
oceanographicmagazine.com/news/interna...
oceanographicmagazine.com/news/interna...
International Seabed Authority to investigate The Metals Company - Oceanographic
The landmark decision has been earmarked as a critical step in protecting the deep sea - recognised as the common heritage of humankind.
oceanographicmagazine.com
August 8, 2025 at 5:16 PM
International Seabed Authority to investigate The Metals Company
oceanographicmagazine.com/news/interna...
oceanographicmagazine.com/news/interna...
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Check this nice first first-author paper by Ning Hall—now out in Nature Geoscience! Our team had a blast supporting Ning on the isolation workflow, and a few of the standout Methanococcoides strains even trace back to our Danish waters. 🌊
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Coastal methane emissions driven by aerotolerant methanogens using seaweed and seagrass metabolites - Nature Geoscience
Experiments suggest aerotolerant archaea produce methane in the surface layers of coastal sandy sediments and that this activity is driven by seaweed and seagrass metabolites.
www.nature.com
August 7, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Check this nice first first-author paper by Ning Hall—now out in Nature Geoscience! Our team had a blast supporting Ning on the isolation workflow, and a few of the standout Methanococcoides strains even trace back to our Danish waters. 🌊
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
“Isolation of a new methanotroph belonging to Mycobacterium” is now out! Awesome work by my former postdoc Hiromi Kambara, who led this project all the way.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
First isolation of a methanotrophic Mycobacterium reveals ammonia- and pH-tolerant methane oxidation | Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Methane is a significant contributor to climate change (27 times more potent as a
greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide), and the largest biological sink is methane-oxidizing
bacteria: methanotrophs. Alt...
journals.asm.org
August 1, 2025 at 6:37 AM
“Isolation of a new methanotroph belonging to Mycobacterium” is now out! Awesome work by my former postdoc Hiromi Kambara, who led this project all the way.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Thanks, @jamesdinneen.bsky.social, for the lovely review of my book. I hope y'all have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
@karenlloyd.bsky.social's new book Intraterrestrials offers the field guide to Earth's deep biosphere you didn't know you needed. Here's my review in @newscientist.com:
www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
Earth's extraordinary deep biosphere is our next great frontier
A fantastic alien adventure can be found on our very own planet by studying the microbial life in Earth's crust, according to Karen G. Lloyd's new book Intraterrestrials
www.newscientist.com
July 31, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Thanks, @jamesdinneen.bsky.social, for the lovely review of my book. I hope y'all have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
This is a nice explanation of how SAR11, a starvation expert, tries to curl up and die when you feed it. This is why the best approach to getting these uncultured organisms to grow is often a sneak attack - feed them but don't feed them too much! @jcamthrash.bsky.social @ahoiching.bsky.social
Our latest, lead by @ahoiching.bsky.social, uncovering physiological vulnerabilities and helping to explain growth rate limitation in SAR11.
Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs
Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs
June 26, 2025 at 11:46 PM
This is a nice explanation of how SAR11, a starvation expert, tries to curl up and die when you feed it. This is why the best approach to getting these uncultured organisms to grow is often a sneak attack - feed them but don't feed them too much! @jcamthrash.bsky.social @ahoiching.bsky.social
Organisms that are buried alive for many thousands of years without enough energy to grow could be called "aeonophiles", so we can talk about them more easily. @drewsteen.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4tzecaxn
Defining ultra-slow-growing extremophilic microorganisms as aeonophiles
Nature Microbiology - In environments like the deep subsurface, microorganisms with long doubling times can remain metabolically active for millions of years — we propose referring to this...
tinyurl.com
June 23, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Organisms that are buried alive for many thousands of years without enough energy to grow could be called "aeonophiles", so we can talk about them more easily. @drewsteen.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4tzecaxn
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Lawmakers in Congress should not be buying, trading, and owning individual stocks. Period.
It’s long past time to BAN Congressional stock trading.
It’s long past time to BAN Congressional stock trading.
June 13, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Lawmakers in Congress should not be buying, trading, and owning individual stocks. Period.
It’s long past time to BAN Congressional stock trading.
It’s long past time to BAN Congressional stock trading.
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Make sure to attend a No Kings March this Saturday near you!! You can find out where here (Stop this coup!)
www.nokings.org
www.nokings.org
No Kings
On June 14—Flag Day—Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. ...
www.nokings.org
June 12, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Make sure to attend a No Kings March this Saturday near you!! You can find out where here (Stop this coup!)
www.nokings.org
www.nokings.org
This sums up what is happening in LA beautifully. I'm in LA and everything he says "checks out" with my reality.
June 11, 2025 at 9:22 PM
This sums up what is happening in LA beautifully. I'm in LA and everything he says "checks out" with my reality.
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Deploying Marines to LA isn’t normal. It’s a gross abuse of power similar to what we see from dictators around the world, setting the stage for martial law or full-on authoritarianism.
June 9, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Deploying Marines to LA isn’t normal. It’s a gross abuse of power similar to what we see from dictators around the world, setting the stage for martial law or full-on authoritarianism.
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
This is the spirit of Los Angeles.
This is California.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
#FreeDavidEndRaids
This is California.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
#FreeDavidEndRaids
June 9, 2025 at 8:43 PM
This is the spirit of Los Angeles.
This is California.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
#FreeDavidEndRaids
This is California.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
#FreeDavidEndRaids
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Hello. I live in Los Angeles. The president is lying.
June 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Hello. I live in Los Angeles. The president is lying.
700 marines. For what? It's a beautiful sunny day in LA and we're just trying to live our lives and go to work and school as normal. This is an insane escalation.
June 9, 2025 at 9:53 PM
700 marines. For what? It's a beautiful sunny day in LA and we're just trying to live our lives and go to work and school as normal. This is an insane escalation.
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Los Angeles is not a war zone. We are not descending into chaos and lawlessness. We’re a great city full of good people. We don’t need the National Guard.
June 9, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Los Angeles is not a war zone. We are not descending into chaos and lawlessness. We’re a great city full of good people. We don’t need the National Guard.
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.
June 9, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
The @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social welcomes @karenlloyd.bsky.social for a special virtual event tomorrow (6 June) at 6 pm BST! She will be discussing her new book, Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth.
Learn more about this free event:
Learn more about this free event:
Intraterrestrials: Discovering the strangest life on Earth
Learn what alien microbes living in the deepest, darkest recesses of Earth’s crust can reveal about the dawn and future of our planet with biologist Karen Lloyd.
yorkfestivalofideas.com
June 5, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social welcomes @karenlloyd.bsky.social for a special virtual event tomorrow (6 June) at 6 pm BST! She will be discussing her new book, Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth.
Learn more about this free event:
Learn more about this free event:
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Senator Ossoff speaking the truth. We need real action
June 2, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Senator Ossoff speaking the truth. We need real action
Reposted by Karen Lloyd
Our paper on the cultivation of a putative sulfur comproportionator from the Frasassi caves is finally out! Jan would have been happy to see this paper published - it's got everything that he loved: thermodynamics, cultivation, weird metabolisms, and life underground. Cheers to Jan!
rdcu.be/enlo3
rdcu.be/enlo3
Isolation of a putative sulfur comproportionating microorganism
Scientific Reports - Isolation of a putative sulfur comproportionating microorganism
rdcu.be
May 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Our paper on the cultivation of a putative sulfur comproportionator from the Frasassi caves is finally out! Jan would have been happy to see this paper published - it's got everything that he loved: thermodynamics, cultivation, weird metabolisms, and life underground. Cheers to Jan!
rdcu.be/enlo3
rdcu.be/enlo3