Accessible Navigation.  Living the Hot Life  Studies of
Yellowstone microbes shed light  on long-standing evolutionary
questions  Yellowstone hot pool photo by Patrick Hutchins, Odd
Angle Photography  By Chad Dundas  You can tell Scott Miller is
used to the question. When you ask it, he leans back in his
chair and flashes the sort of patient, accommodating grin that
takes years to master.  “What do you do?” he repeats, like he’s
heard this one a million times before. “What exactly do you do?”
Such is life for a microbiologist, a guy who has devoted his
career to studying creatures the naked eye can’t see — organisms
some people are unaware even exist.  Miller’s research into
photosynthetic bacterial life in the hot pools of Yellowstone
National Park isn’t the kind of thing that’s necessarily easy to
explain at cocktail parties. Yet there is magic in Miller’s
work.  UM microbiologist Scott Miller investigates the
evolutionary mechanisms used by cyanobacterium to adapt to
extreme environments.For nearly 20 yea