biology

Karl Stetter

Karl Stetter is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Karl Stetter rather than just read about it. In short: Karl Otto Stetter (born 16 July 1941) is a German microbiologist and authority on astrobiology. Stetter is an expert on microbial life at high temperatures.

Key takeaways

Karl Stetter belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Karl Stetter to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Karl Stetter from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Karl Otto Stetter (born 16 July 1941) is a German microbiologist and authority on astrobiology. Stetter is an expert on microbial life at high temperatures.

Career Stetter was born in Munich and studied biology at the Technical University of Munich. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on lactobacilli. From 1980 to 2002 Stetter was professor at, and head of, the department of microbiology and of the Archaea center of the University of Regensburg. The majority of Stetter's research has focused on sampling, isolating and characterizing archaeal organisms which comprise the third domain of life, particularly undiscovered extremely heat-loving (hyperthermophilic) bacteria and Archaea, also called extremophiles, growing optimally between 80 and 113 °C.

Major discovery In 1992, Stetter, along with Robert Huber, discovered a new species of thermophilic bacteria near Kolbeinsey Ridge and named the species Aquifex pyrophilous. Nanoarchaeum equitans, an archaeal microorganism containing the world's then smallest known genome, was discovered by Stetter in 2002 in a hydrothermal vent off the coast of Iceland. This archaeon was described in the scientific journal Nature in May 2002.

Discoveries Among the other extremophiles discovered by Stetter has been Pyrococcus furiosus, which was found on the Italian island of Vulcano in 1981. This extremophile was the source of Pfu DNA polymerase. Stetter also discovered Aquifex aeolicus and Aquifex pyrophilus.

Awards and memberships In 2003, Stetter was honored with the Leeuwenhoek Medal by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, an award given every 10 years to the scientist who has made the most outstanding contributions to the advancement of microbiology. Stetter is a member of the:

Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina American Society of Microbiology (ASM) Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Science (IGPP), UCLA Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie (DGHM) Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte Gesellschaft für Biologische Chemie (GBCh) International Committee on Environmental Biogeochemistry (ISEB) International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology (ICSB) International Institute of Biotechnology International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL) Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999) Vereinigung für Allgemeine und Angewandte Mikrobiologie (VAAM)

See also Carl Woese Hyperthermophiles Archaea

References

External links Professor Dr. Karl O. Stetter Archived 2020-02-25 at the Wayback Machine (homepage at University of Regensburg)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karl Stetter

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karl Stetter claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Karl Stetter before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Karl Stetter ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Karl Stetter

In research: Karl Stetter appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Karl Stetter in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Karl Stetter is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 20th-century German scientists, 21st-century German biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karl Stetter outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Karl Stetter in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Karl Stetter means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Karl Stetter out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Karl Stetter in simple terms?

Karl Otto Stetter (born 16 July 1941) is a German microbiologist and authority on astrobiology. Stetter is an expert on microbial life at high temperatures.

Why does Karl Stetter matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Karl Stetter?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Karl Stetter.