Bacteria Make it Rain?

Brent Christner, of Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, has been studying rain and snow. He found something surprising: lots of bacteria. His colleague, Pierre Amato, found the same thing in clouds, according to New Scientist. That led Christner to the interesting theory that these bacteria actually cause the ice and water vapor in the atmosphere to form crystals which are large enough to fall to the ground as precipitation. The particular bacteria he studied cause disease in tomatoes and beans, but he says they could be useful. "In places that suffer drought you could plant crops that harbour bacteria to increase precipitation," he suggests. We may at least want to slow down our efforts at killing the pathogen off, which is what we've been trying to do until now.