- Seattle Neighborhoods: Broadview & Bitter Lake — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The Broadview neighborhood bordering Puget Sound in northwest Seattle takes its name from the expansive views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains that can be seen from its western slopes. The neighborhood reaches north from N 105th Street to the city limits at N 145th Street, and is bounded on the east by Aurora Avenue N. It is home to Carkeek Park, Evergreen Park Cemetery, the Ida Culver Retirement Home, and Bitter Lake, which beckoned many of the first settlers to the area. It drew its identity from an amusement park called Playland that operated on the south shore of Bitter Lake for 30 years, beginning in 1930. The Seattle-Everett Interurban trolley line ran through the heart of the neighborhood, bringing people and goods to the area and hastening its development. Broadview, once forestland and rural farmland, today is a suburban home to 13,000 residents.
- Bacteria (Wikipedia)
Bacteria are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit the air, soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, and the deep biosphere of Earth’s crust. Bacteria play a vital role in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients and the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of dead bodies; bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process. In the biological communities surrounding hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, extremophile bacteria provide the nutrients needed to sustain life by converting dissolved compounds, such as hydrogen sulphide and methane, to energy. Bacteria also live in mutualistic, commensal and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. Most bacteria have not been characterised and there are many species that cannot be grown in the laboratory. The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology.