Meet Dr Louise Johnson

You may be surprised to hear that many scientific discoveries have been made by chance. Our chance discovery was that we accidentally left experimental samples out for longer than needed and in doing so something remarkable happened.

In this video, I meet with Dr Louise Johnson and Professor Rob Jackson (who you met in Step 1.18) who explain how this meant that they found that a simple bacteria can restart their ‘outboard motor’ by hotwiring their own genes. Unable to move and facing starvation, the bacteria evolve a replacement flagellum – a rotating tail-like structure which acts like an outboard motor – by patching together a new genetic switch with borrowed parts.

Recommended reading

• After you watch the video, you can find out more about our research by reading our blog and paper on ScienceMag.