My research passion right now is cyanobacteria (the bacteria that invented the photosynthesis that plants now make and are responsible for the fact that the earth's atmosphere, in the distant past, had oxygen). Specifically those that live in soils, where vegetation finds it difficult or impossible to thrive, they arrive and make the soil start to be alive, they make it cohesive, avoiding erosion by water and wind, they provide organic matter (as they carry out photosynthesis, contributing to its decrease in the atmosphere) and a source of nitrogen useful for other organisms; they favour water infiltration and reduce evaporation. All this prevents desertification and increases the fertility of soils, favouring the establishment of other organisms and/or plants. Although I am also interested in the cyanobacteria that live in rivers, attached to rocks or other substrates, being part of the primary producers.
As for my work as a teacher, I try to transmit to the students the importance and beauty of Plant Physiology, a subject they are not usually very interested in, highlighting how we all depend on plants, their economic importance, their ability to communicate and how ‘intelligent’ they can be without a nervous system.