Soil fertility is intimately tied to sustaining life on

ourplanet .
"By adhering to a wet surface, bacteria can wait for food to come by in the
water," he noted. "In fact, trickling filters in sewage treatment plants depend on
biofilms to treat wastewater."

By understanding the basic science of biofilms, researchers expect to have better

tools to fight biofilm-caused infections in patients and to engineer biofilms for
environmental cleanups," he concluded