Small Things Considered

A blog for sharing appreciation of the width and depth of microbes and microbial activities on this planet.

Small Things Considered
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Welcome to Small Things Considered (STC)! In this blog we share our excitement about unexpected and unusual stories of the microbial world. The "About" page describes who we are. But we do not just publish our own writing. We very much enjoy posting contributions from students, postdocs, and others. Don't think that we do this to avoid work, we spend a lot of time editing the material we receive. Do send us your comments, criticisms, submissions, ideas, or whatever else comes to you mind; we are very eager to hear from you. See the "Contact" for directions on how to reach us. Thank you for visiting and, before you go, consider taking a moment to "Subscribe."
  • Safeguarding Beetle Development
  • Molecular Fossils of Microbial Interactions
  • A New Look and Other Changes
  • Christopher T. Walsh (1944–2023)
  • The Who-Ate-Whom of Terms in Biology: Virovory
  • Winter Vacation
  • Retrospective, July to December 2022
  • Luciferin in Scintillons at Sea
  • Applied Molecular Microbiology at Dubrovnik

Safeguarding Beetle Development

by Mechas and Roberto  
This is the story of how pursuing a century-old observation led to the recent discovery the chemical ecology involved in protecting a beetle from fungal infection during larval molting. It shall come as no surprise that we would be thrilled by such a story; throughout the lifetime of the blog, we've had posts on insect-microbe symbioses... Read more →

Posted on January 30, 2023 at 12:30 AM in Ecology, Symbioses | Permalink | Comments (0)

Molecular Fossils of Microbial Interactions

by Einat Segev  
Microbes have inhabited our planet for many millions of years. While thriving and dying in almost every niche on Earth, microbes leave behind relics, and some of these relics remain preserved in the geological record. Many cell components are rapidly degraded and do not persist but remains that do are like archives of ancient microbial life. Read more →

Posted on January 26, 2023 at 12:30 AM in Ecology, Evolution, Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

A New Look and Other Changes

by Roberto  
What were you doing seventeen years ago, in 2006? I have a tough time recalling my own actions then, but I sure can tell you what Elio did that year. With his energy, enthusiasm, and relentless itch for writing (along with support from ASM, namely Chris Condayan) he gave birth to this blog. Read more →

Posted on January 23, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christopher T. Walsh (1944–2023)

by Roberto  
Last week, my enthusiastic feelings for the beginning of the new year were greatly dampened when I received the news of Chris Walsh's untimely death, the consequence of a fall. Many of us fortunate enough to have known and interacted with him for many years are still processing... Read more →

Posted on January 19, 2023 at 12:00 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Who-Ate-Whom of Terms in Biology: Virovory

by Christoph  
Like with the cus­to­ma­ry New Year's Eve fire­works, eve­ry year we bio­lo­gists are blessed with hi­ther­to un­known or lar­ge­ly un­com­mon sci­en­ti­fic terms. Some stick, others blaze away like said fire­works. How would you guess the term "vi­ro­vo­ry," which was ad­ded to Wi­ki­pe­dia on 29 Decem­ber 2022, will fare? Read more →

Posted on January 16, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Ecology, Protists, Viruses | Permalink | Comments (0)

Winter Vacation


We take advantage of this being the season for re­joic­ing, and em­bark on a three-week win­ter vaca­tion. When we re­turn in 2023, on Ja­nua­ry 16th, we will en­ter the 17th year of Small Things Con­sider­ed. Read more →

Posted on December 22, 2022 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Retrospective, July to December 2022

by the STC team 
Keeping with tradition, here is a lightly annotated list of our forty-seven posts from the last half year. Read more →

Posted on December 19, 2022 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Luciferin in Scintillons at Sea

by Janie 
Summer through au­tumn is the time of year for ma­rine di­no­fla­gel­lates' famed light fes­ti­vals. If the con­di­tions are just right, the roll of an ocean wave or the push of a ka­yak paddle or the sway of your legs as you wade in deep­er is enough to set the wa­ters... Read more →

Posted on December 15, 2022 at 01:30 AM in Behavior, Physiology & Genetics, Protists | Permalink | Comments (0)

Applied Molecular Microbiology at Dubrovnik

by Roberto 
If you are interest­ed in any sub­ject re­lated to small mo­le­cule na­tur­al pro­ducts of mi­cro­bi­al ori­gin, the "John In­nes/Rud­jer Boš­ko­vić Sum­mer School in Ap­plied Mo­le­cu­lar Mi­cro­bio­lo­gy" is for you. I know that course name is a mouth­ful so when I am de­scrib­ing the school to mi­cro­bio­lo­gists, I re­fer to it simp­ly as... Read more →

Posted on December 12, 2022 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends, Teachers Corner | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scientific Publishing – eLife's Reviewed Preprints

by Roberto 
Just over five years ago, George O'Toole and I had a con­ver­sa­tion about sci­en­ti­fic pub­lish­ing which we posted at STC. After some harsh com­ments cri­tiqu­ing for-pro­fit sci­en­ti­fic pub­lish­ers, jour­nal im­pact fac­tors, and pre­da­to­ry jour­nals, we turned to think­ing about so­lu­tions. George in­di­cat­ed some guard­ed... Read more →

Posted on December 08, 2022 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

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