Small Things Considered

An Eau de Microbe for Every Memory

by Janie  
It is terpenes like geosmin and many other molecules of microbial make that imbue so much of the world with scents. Commercial perfumes, too, are principally scented by terpenes and their derivatives and other molecules that are aromatic (aromatic both in the sense of... Read more →

An Illustrated Tree

by Roberto  
From the fun­da­men­tal con­cepts of bio­lo­gy, the fact that all or­gan­isms now alive share a com­mon an­ces­tor (LUCA) ranks as one of my fa­vo­rites. When I pause to con­si­der that, des­pite four bil­lion years of evo­lu­tion and di­ver­gence, my ri­bo­so­mal RNA shares some stret­ches of se­quence iden­ti­ty with all other au­to­no­mous or­gan­isms, I still get goose bumps... Read more →

Putrescence and Poetry

by Corrado Nai  
Flickering stars filigree the cosmic void. A green, incandescent planet bursts on the screen. We didn't know we were watching a science fiction movie. Drumrolls climax into the next frame. Suddenly, fiction is stripped away, and in a heartbeat we are thrown into the heart of science and culture. We are not staring at the infinitely large but observing the minuscule at work. Read more →

The Atlas of Cell Structure

by Roberto  
Our knowledge of the structure of microbial cells just keeps getting better as the resolution of imaging techniques continues to increase. A key player in this rapidly evolving technological field is cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) which, aided by powerful computational tools, allows for the generation of three-dimensional images of whole microbial cells... Read more →

Women in Microbiology Who Fought for Equality, Science, and our World!

by Microbigals  
International Women's day is all about embracing equity! So, we'd love to share some of the amazing women throughout history and around the world that overcame hardships, fought for their rights to be scientists, and embraced equity! Their contributions to other microbiologists, to their communities, to women in STEM, have helped pave the way... Read more →

The van Leeuwenhoek Medal

by Roberto  
When it comes to awards recognizing major contributions to microbiology, my personal favorite is the van Leeuwenhoek Medal given by the Royal Dutch Society for Microbiology. Unlike most such accolades that are presented year after year, this honor has a long tradition of being awarded every ten years (more or less). I believe... Read more →

Borgs in Archaea

by Mechas  
Microbes never cease to surprise, as should be evident to long-time STC readers. Now we are presented with a novel mechanism that allows archaea to expand their gene content and metabolic capacity. This unforeseen discovery also illustrates the importance not only of having the right tools (and funding) but also of being prepared to find the unexpected. Read more →

Talmudic Question #202

Why do bacteria – think Agro­bacterium, Strepto­myces, Bor­relia among others – not care at all if they have linear and circular chromo­somes and episomes (plasmids, prophages) side-by-side in one cell? Read more →

In Pieces: The Segmented Genome

by Janie  
"Segmented genome" is a term I had only heard ap­plied to vi­rus­es un­til re­cent­ly. It re­fers to genomes that con­sist of two or more mo­le­cules, a cha­rac­ter­is­tic that grants an evo­lu­tion­ary ad­van­tage: when mul­tiple vi­rus­es in­fect the same un­for­tu­nate cell, these dif­ferent frag­ments can be mixed and mat­ched to ge­ner­ate new, re­as­sort­ed genomes. Read more →

Macrolides from Mollusks, Not Microbes?

by Janie  
Last year, we covered the microbiological implications of feather pigments in parrots, touching on an unexpected polyketide synthase (PKS) active in an animal rather than a microbe or plant. Now, a redux of animal polyketides! This episode of molecules from unexpected places takes place undersea, starring the clam. Read more →