Small Things Considered

Summer Vacation

by the STC team
We are taking our customary two week vacation. Do you think we deserve it ? Looking forward to seeing you again on July 5th ! Read more →

Retrospective, January to June 2021

by Elio | We list here our posts from the last half year, briefly annotated. Read more →

A Whiff of Taxonomy – Radiolaria

by Roberto | The men­tion of Radiolaria al­ways brings to mind Ernst Haeckel's as­ton­ish­ing hand-drawn ima­ges, com­piled in his clas­sic plate col­lect­ion Art Forms in Na­ture. I'm always mes­mer­ized by the sym­metry and de­tail of his draw­ings of mi­cros­cop­ic ske­le­tons. Haec­kel's abi­li­ty to com­bine science and art is one as­pect of his re­mark­able career. His life pre­sents... Read more →

Small Animals Considered

by Roberto | When queried about the largest animals (a.k.a. metazoans) on Earth, I venture to guess that most readers will point to the blue whales, those magnificent marine mammals that can reach lengths of up to 30 meters and weigh upwards of 200 metric tons. Read more →

Teachers Corner: Chalks Talks vs PowerPoints

by Elio | Two years ago today, Christopher Waters from Michigan State University posted a preprint in bioRxiv entitled "Rock the Chalk: A five-year comparative analysis of a large microbiology lecture course reveals improved outcomes of chalk-talk compared to PowerPoint." It is a good read... Read more →

Cell Division in Bacteria: Themes & Variations

by Elio | From bacteria on up, all the way to the cells of our bo­dies, most cells di­vide by bi­na­ry fis­sion. That is, the pro­cess ini­tiat­es at mid­cell, usu­al­ly by con­strict­ion, and pro­ceeds un­til the two re­sult­ant daugh­ter cells be­come se­pa­rat­ed. Most of­ten, these two sis­ter cells are iden­ti­cal in size and shape. Boring. En­ter Ba­cil­lus sub­tilis... Read more →

Talmudic Question #187

by Raymond Cox
Why does Brevibacterium grow so slowly? Read more →

The Riddle of Life

by Daniel | Book Review: How Molecular Forces and Rotating Planets Create Life: The Emergence and Evolution of Prokaryotic Cells by Jan Spitzer   Read more →

TWiM 241: What Does Flu Do to Your Poo?

How Vibrio biofilms are dispersed by polyamine signals, and the induction of inappetence by respiratory virus infection which causes alteration of the gut microbiome. Read more →

Names, New and Strange – A Snippet

by Elio
Are you baffled by the advent of so many new species of bacteria, most carrying unusual names? Let me throw a few at you: Adlercreutzia equolifaciens subsp. celatus, Bacillus velezensis, Butti­auxella agrestis, Cupriavidus basilensis, Curtobacterium... Read more →