Small Things Considered

Stay Away, Stay Away – There Is Danger Ahead

by Elio | In ancient times, persons suffering from a dreaded disease believed to be contagious, such as leprosy, were given a bell to ring and thus noisily announce their presence. Healthy people could then move away and try to avoid contact.  Amazingly, bacteria use an analogous strategy. Read more →

Talmudic Question #173

Can you envisage a Winogradsky column consisting of only Gram-negative bacteria (or just Gram-positives, for that matter)? Read more →

A Simple Decision

by Manuel Sanchez | The story to be told here is about how a 'data' biologist had to 'put on his lab coat' to solve a problem of a 'boot biologist.' In 1906 the American zoo­logist Herbert Spencer Jennings conducted an experiment with the protozoan Stentor roeseli to determine how it reacted to an irritant stimulus. S. roeseli is a sessile, trumpet-shaped protozoan. Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: The Exome

by Elio | An exome is the collection of exons, the sequences within the primary mRNA transcripts of an organism that are eventually used for making proteins. The rest, non-coding sequences, called introns, are removed by RNA splicing. (Note that there is no ‘introme,’ at least not yet.)   Read more →

TWiM 211: Bacteria, colon cancer and fire blight

The oldest osteosynthesis in history, and how a small molecule produced by stressed bacteria is a warning signal that repels healthy populations to promote their survival. Read more →

How to Swim Through Goo: Lessons from a Microbial Menagerie

by Janie | One of my favorite childhood book/TV se­ries was The Ma­gic School Bus, which fol­lows quir­ky sci­ence tea­cher Ms. Frizzle and her class in their ma­gic school bus as they go on field trips to outer space, through the food chain, or in­side the hu­man bo­dy. I espe­cial­ly liked the epi­sode in which the class shrinks down to the mi­cro­sco­pic le­vel... Read more →

Where Do Phages of Atypical Bacteria Come From? A Snippet.

by Elio | Some time ago, a piece in this blog dealt with the com­ple­xi­ties of the Gram stain. In brief, it said: "In a simp­ler world, all bac­te­ria with a single mem­brane, the mono­derms, would be Gram-po­si­tive, all those with two (the di­derms), Gram-ne­ga­tive... Hah! Were it that simple! Each of these groups... Read more →

TWiM 210: The Waze of microbes

The oldest osteosynthesis in history, and how a small molecule produced by stressed bacteria is a warning signal that repels healthy populations to promote their survival. Read more →

A Whiff of Taxonomy – Saltatorellus ferox, again...

by Christoph | In a follow-up of the pre­vi­ous post on Sal­ta­to­rel­lus fe­rox, and its un­usual way of cell di­vi­sion and cel­lu­lar move­ment, I'm going to take a clo­ser look here at its chro­mo­so­me rep­li­ca­tion and se­gre­ga­tion. Read more →

Winter Vacation

We take advantage of this being the season for re­joic­ing, and take our customary two week winter va­ca­tion. When we return in 2019, on January 6th, we will enter the 14th year of Small Things Considered. Read more →