The Halophilic World of Lourens Baas Becking

Abstract

The name Lourens Baas Becking (1895–1963) is known to most biologists for his statement “everything is everywhere: but, the environment selects.” This sentence (“alles is overal: maar het milieu selecteert”) is featured in a book of collected lectures in Dutch, published in 1934. It is seldom realized that many of Baas Becking’s studies dealt with hypersaline environments and their biota, but the longest chapter in his book (‘De Pekel’ – The Brine) discusses halophilic microorganisms and their environments and contains many surprising statements and observations mostly forgotten today. Baas Becking’s career took him from the University of Utrecht to Stanford University, the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, Indies, and Australia. The samples he collected from salt lakes and salterns during his travels formed the basis for his observations on Dunaliella and other salt flagellates, halophilic Archaea, Artemia, and other life forms in high-salt environments.