Small Things Considered

TWiM 219: Commensal for a healthy skin

On This Week in Microbiology: A peptide from commensal bacteria that protects skin from damage caused by MRSA. Read more →

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 13th ! Read more →

Viewing the Pulse of Earth, A Vital Sign

by Scott Chimileski and Roberto | Earth has a pulse. And at this time in hu­man his­to­ry, we can see it. In­stead of a heart­beat, Earth's sur­face pul­sa­tes with the ac­ti­vi­ty of tril­lions of or­gan­isms, each part of one, in­ter­con­nec­ted bio­sphere dri­ven by mi­cro­bi­al life. In­stead of beat­ing about once per se­cond, the bio­sphere beats around once a year. From 1997 to 2017,... Read more →

Mueller-Hinton Medium

by the STC team | On June 11th, we were addressed in a tweet by microbiologist Joe Harrison (@JoeHarrison1):"This seems like a timely topic for a blog or an article @ASMicrobiology @STCmicrobeblog. Mueller-Hinton agar is used globally and has standardized the study of #AMR. Before today, I'd never read the story of Jane Hinton @citeblackwomen"... Read more →

Retrospective, January to June 2020

by Elio
Here is the list of the posts from the last half year, briefly annotated. Read more →

Touch-Tone Transcription: A Pathogen's Sense of Touch

by Janie | In a world buzzing with sensory input of all stripes and colors, a bacterium isn't one to miss out on any of the latest surrounding scoop. The sense of touch is not ignored. Mechanical feedback influences how a bacterium might move or stay in place... Read more →

Feel dehydrated? Dig for some water then!

by Christoph | Cyanobacteria of the genus Chro­oco­cci­diop­sis are known to sur­vive harsh en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions, high and low tem­pe­ra­tures, ion­izing ra­dia­tion, and high sa­li­ni­ty. Add re­sist­an­ce to de­hy­dra­tion or, in the ex­treme form, de­sic­ca­tion and you have a se­ri­ous chal­len­ger of Dei­no­coc­cus to the title "champ­ion of re­sil­ience". Like the lat­ter, Chro­oco­cci­diop­sis is ea­si­ly found in the Ata­ca­ma de­sert... Read more →

In Memoriam: Roland Wolkowicz

by Forest Rohwer | In his 14 years at SDSU, Roland studied HIV as well as RNA viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes—how they affect cells and their possible drug treatments. He was known for a remarkable dedication to his students, refusing to step back from teaching even while severely weakened by advanced lung cancer and its treatment. Read more →

The COVID-19 Virus by the Numbers

by Elio | The trio of Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo, here aug­men­ted by Avi Flam­holz, have done it again. In the past, they pre­sen­ted us the astound­ing num­bers for the dis­tri­bu­tion of bio­mass on this pla­net, no less. We high­light­ed this se­mi­nal con­tri­bu­tion to our un­der­stand­ing of the li­ving world... Read more →

Talmudic Question #177

A twist on Schrödinger’s Cat… In­stead of ra­dio­iso­tope, a Gei­ger coun­ter, a poi­son and a cat, in­side a sealed box with a light and kept at am­bient tem­pe­ra­ture and at­mo­sphe­ric pres­sure, you place a Wi­no­grad­sky co­lumn and a sealed vial... Read more →