# Paleobotanical Origins of The Reflecting Pool Disaster

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/crime-pays-but-botany-doesn-t-244480/paleobotanical-origins-of-the-reflecting-pool-disaster
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/crime-pays-but-botany-doesn-t-244480/paleobotanical-origins-of-the-reflecting-pool-disaster.md
Podcast: [Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't](https://stenobird.com/podcast/crime-pays-but-botany-doesn-t-244480)
Published: 2026-09-16T15:15:06+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/paleobotanical-origins-of-the-reflecting-pool-disaster--75168563
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75168563/chuck_delwiche.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/crime-pays-but-botany-doesn-t-244480/episodes/paleobotanical-origins-of-the-reflecting-pool-disaster
Duration seconds: 7662

## Resource

In this episode we talk with Chuck Delwiche about the early evolution of land plants, photosynthetic bacteria, what Earth may have looked like 4 billion years ago, what some of the first land plants look like, why bioluminescent dinoflagellates (Pyrocystis) "light up", and the species of algae responsible for the reflecting pool disaster that nearly have the president an aneurysm over the summer. Chuck Delwiche is a professor of biology at University of Maryland who studies green algae, archaea, and the early evolution of plants.

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## Transcript

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