Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Like so many great scientific discoveries, Tom Brock started the research that would go on to revolutionize the field of biology — and pave the road to the development of the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight a pandemic — with a question. In 1964, the microbiologist was driving out West when he stopped to visit Yellowstone National Park. It was the first time he saw the park's picturesque hot springs. "I got to the thermal area and I saw all these colors of what were obviously microbes," said Brock, then a professor at Indiana University. "No one seemed to know much about them."