by Christoph — Exactly eight years ago today, we introduced you to the 'Hedgehogs In Your Garden'. No, we had not turned our backs on the Small Things and became gardeners instead. Again today, it is not about gardening activities, namely, 'How to grow shrubs'. Let me explain... Read more →
Genomic Dark Matter
by Mechas — Discovering microscopic organisms and elements that exist at the edge of sight is no easy task. New tools designed to explore this mysterious world reveal previously unknown elements and uncover a complex web of forms whose secrets remain to be fully unraveled. Read more →
Genomes by AI
by Roberto — Two years ago I played, simultaneously amused and bemused, with ChatGPT. It was clear artificial intelligence (AI) had taken a quantum leap. While I did not get to play with it, reading about Evo last week evoked similar feelings; it left me both in awe and slightly unnerved. In case you missed it, Evo does with genome sequences what ChatGPT does with words, i.e., almost everything. Read more →
Of Terms in Biology: Edaphon
by Roberto — Soil, the material on the surface of the ground on which plants grow, is itself teeming with life. And there's a term that unifies all that life as an interconnected whole: edaphon. Though it is seldom found in the scientific literature, I will argue that it should be more widely taught and used. Read more →
Lost & Found #1
by Christoph — STC will be leaving 𝕏 (formerly Twitter) in the near future. Over the coming months, at irregular intervals, I'll be sifting through my bookmarks on 𝕏 and share with you what I found, two or three tweets at a time. This is 'Lost & Found #1'. Read more →
Pseudouridine, antibiotics, and blue
by Janie — Pseudouridine, an isomer of uridine, is perhaps now most widely known for its critical role in the success of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Three years ago on STC, Roberto wrote an appreciative note about this key feature of the vaccines, the N1-methylpseudouridine that acts a bit like an invisibility cloak... Read more →
Pictures Considered #64: Emergent Properties
by Roberto — Some years ago, when Scott Chimileski wrote 'Life at the Edge of Sight', we wanted to present two images that displayed emergent properties of organisms expressing collective behavior. We came up with this pair of photographs, whose scales differ by seven orders of magnitude. Read more →
How E. coli Rose to Prominence – Again, One More Addendum (2|2)
by Christoph — In the fourth and, for the time being, last episode of this 'Ecolimania' in STC, I take a look around: Do we know the diversity of the species E. coli ? And what can we learn from analyses of its pangenome ? Read more →
Endophytic Streptomyces & Plant Growth
by Roberto — Because of the deleterious effects on soil due to the prolonged use and overuse of synthetic fertilizers, the quest for bacteria able to promote plant growth is an ongoing pursuit. Yet, these searches are usually focused on members of a few genera, prime amongst these Bacillus and Pseudomonas. What about the Streptomyces? Read more →
Through The Pilus
by Roberto — Among the many mechanisms of bacterial horizontal gene transfer, conjugation, the plasmid-mediated cell-to-cell movement of DNA, holds a special place in the heart of this old-timer E. coli geneticist. Its discovery not only allowed genetic mapping through "interrupted mating" experiments, it also opened the door to studies on the regulation of gene expression (witness the famed PaJaMo experiment). Read more →