Hey, it's Flora Lichtenen and you're listening to Science Friday.

If you're feeling stressed about the state of the world right now, you are not alone.

In a poll from the American Psychological Association, over half the people surveyed said they felt isolated and more than three quarters say they are significantly stressed

about the future of the nation. In times like these, what I crave are stories of resilience,

stories that remind me that the world has been a mess before and others have found creative

ways through it. So I bring you cyanobacteria. These guys have lived

through conditions that resemble actual hell and have made it work. How do they do it? And what can we

learn from them? That is what we're talking about today with Dr. Daviki Bahaya, a molecular microbiologist at Carnegie Science in Stanford, California.

Davy, nice to talk to you. And what do you think of my premise? You can be honest.

I love your premise. I want to applaud you for bringing it right into the room that we are all stressed.

Everybody from humans to microbes. So I'm more than

happy to tell you about how microbes do it. And maybe if the conversation goes that way,

are there any lessons to be learned? Yes, that is what I want to know. Are there lessons to

be learned? And I want to be clear that I don't want to anthropomorphize bacteria. I want to microbialize us.

Two thumbs up to that. Okay. Cyanobacteria, they're your jam. Introduce me to them, like, even starting

with their name. I mean, cyan as in blue, green, right? That's right. And I can't imagine a more appropriate way.

If anybody hasn't seen them, you should go out into the open.

You'll probably see them in any lake.

They're this absolutely gorgeous blue-green color.

That being said, they're even more gorgeous when you break them apart.

You see that there's all kinds of pigments in them.

They were called cyanobacteria, but before that, they were called blue-green algae.

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