Making the paper: Jared Leadbetter.

The article highlights the background of termite's research by Jared Leadbetter during his journey to Costa Rica in May 2005. It is said that Leadbetter, an environmental microbiologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, took a slice of the termite nest and transported it and its inhabitants, the tropical Nasutitermes termites, to Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Institute wherein he dissected almost 200 termites. Leadbetter found a high concentration of spirochetes, a helical bacteria that are usually associated with disease, in the termite's hindgut. It is claimed that the research implicates spirochetes in the initial hydrolysis of wood polysaccharides, making it a crucial part of the termite's digestive machinery.