Small Things Considered

Talmudic Question #159

 
Where on Earth would you expect to find the most varied micro­biome (in terms of different taxa per gram) ? Read more →

Rounding up the Honey Bees (1)

by Christoph | Why would I deviate here from STC's habit to rather not  feature the new­est re­sults of tren­dy re­search to­pics? The rea­son comes hid­den in a short no­tice in Science  by War­ren Corn­wall: "...The new re­search is cer­tain to make a con­tro­ver­sial her­bi­ci­de even more of a flash­point." He re­fer­red, of course, to a re­cent pa­per pub­lish­ed in PNAS... Read more →

State of the World's Fungi

by Roberto | We want to bring to your attention an outstanding new report on fungi from the Kew Royal Botanic Garden. It makes for great reading and clearly points out the many roles that fungi play on the functioning of Earth's biosphere. Read more →

Needles in a Metagenomic Haystack:Hunting for Molecular Plastic-Chewers

by Janie Kim | Science and speculative fiction works may warn of im­mi­nent threats like hostile extraterrestrial beings or the artificial general intelligence of the technological singularity. But the more humdrum overabundance of plastic waste, an issue closer to home and our every­day lives, is just as deserving of fear. Read more →

Fungi, Toxins, and Fungal Viruses (A Snippet)

by Elio | Fungi make toxins (called, not surprisingly, mycotoxins). This won’t surprise you because you know that certain mushrooms are poisonous and you may know of the aflatoxins, noxious chemicals made by molds that grow on stored grains. Read more →

Take a Deep Breath of... Methane

by Christoph | If you were faced with the task of pre­par­ing a lec­ture se­ri­es on "ge­ne­ral bac­te­ri­al phy­si­o­lo­gy", you could ea­si­ly choose Pseu­do­mo­nas ae­ru­gi­no­sa  as your com­pan­ion, your mo­del or­gan­ism, to co­ver (al­most) eve­ry to­pic. Yet, when it comes to me­ta­bo­lic ver­sa­ti­li­ty, you could also think of Rho­do­pseu­do­mo­nas pal­us­tris  as an al­ter­na­ti­ve. This Al­pha­pro­teo­bac­te­ri­um of the... Read more →

Psilocybin (A Snippet)

by Elio | I suppose that among the readers of this blog interest in the biology and biochemistry of psilocybin may outweigh that in its recreational value (but I am not taking bets). Anyhow, there is something to report on its biosynthesis and, less so, on what's in it for the mushroom that makes it Read more →

The Secrets of Ancient Beer

by Gillian Belk
With the Octoktoberfest themed beers flowing all season, it seemed only appropriate to have a post about the marvels of this delightful frothy beverage Read more →

Talmudic Question #158

The genie has returned yet again. (He al­ready vi­si­ted once back in 2007.) On a moon­lit night, you walk on the beach, stub your toe against a bottle, which con­ven­ient­ly rolls against a rock and shat­ters. A ge­nie emer­ges, eager to grant you one wish. You ask for a mi­cro­bio­lo­gi­cal la­bo­ra­to­ry. The ge­nie grants you that, and tells you that you... Read more →

Shining a light on Vibrio DNA uptake

by Rachel Diner | Vibrio cholerae  is "kind of a big deal" in the bac­te­ri­al world and a po­pu­lar to­pic here on STC. Be­yond be­ing the cau­sa­ti­ve agent for the dis­ease cho­le­ra, it's a mo­del bac­te­ri­um for stu­dy­ing ho­ri­zon­tal gene trans­fer and in­ter­bac­te­ri­al com­pe­ti­tion. A re­cent stu­dy in Na­tu­re Mi­cro­bio­lo­gy sheds new light (li­te­ral­ly) on how this hap­pens. Read more →