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" tab for directions on how to reach us. Thank you for visiting and, before you go, consider taking a moment to "Subscribe."
  • Talmudic Question #209
  • Kool & The Gang − Celebration
  • A Whiff of Taxonomy – Among Vampires
  • Le bal des vampires
  • Contamination in Microbiology
  • Phages Unleashed: The Heist of CRISPR Repeats
  • Andrew Wright (1935−2023)
  • Chemotaxis Praxis
  • How many bacterial pathogens infect humans?

Talmudic Question #209


Talmudic Question #209
What general rules do you see emerging from the ongoing studies of microbial communities that will inform our understanding of their function? Read more →

Posted on November 30, 2023 at 12:43 AM in Talmudic Questions | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kool & The Gang − Celebration

by Christoph  
Other than the title Kool & The Gang − Cele­bra­tion sug­gests, this post is not about the R&B band of past glories and their big­gest hit, but in­stead ce­le­brates the true "cool kids", mush­rooms − bio­lo­gi­cal­ly cor­rect fun­gi − and their "hy­po­ther­mic nature", stu­died by Cor­de­ro et al. (2023). Read more →

Posted on November 27, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Fungi | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Whiff of Taxonomy – Among Vampires

by Christoph  
Elio wrote A table for Two many years ago, about the sur­pris­ing ob­ser­va­tion that the Gram‑ne­ga­tive bac­terium Vib­rio vul­ni­fi­cus can be preyed upon si­mul­tan­eous­ly by a bac­terio­phage and a "bac­terio­vor­ous" bac­ter­ium. He could not have figured that the single image in his piece is a per­fect vig­net­te for the great­ly in­creased in­terest... Read more →

Posted on November 23, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Le bal des vampires

by Christoph  
To­day for a change a mo­vie re­view : The re­make of the 1967 clas­sic Le bal des vam­pires by Ro­man Po­lanski. ... They had cast­ed Caulo­bac­ter cres­centus as the inn­keeper's pretty daugh­ter Sarah, and as the vil­lain Count von Kro­lock none other than Bdello­vibrio exo­vorus (no, not the better known Bdello­vibrio bac­terio­vorus). Read more →

Posted on November 20, 2023 at 12:05 AM in Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Contamination in Microbiology

by Mechas  
Anyone who has worked in a microbiology lab can empathize with the anguish of having a contaminant ruin your experiment. In many cases, such as in clinical laboratories or in the food industry, contaminants can prove devastating and challenging to control. When dealing with environmental samples, on the other hand, contaminants are the norm. Read more →

Posted on November 16, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phages Unleashed: The Heist of CRISPR Repeats

by Sarah Camara-Wilpert and David Mayo-Muñoz  
Bacteria, just like humans, are frequently infected by viruses (bacteriophages or phages). Phages replicate at the expense of their hosts, killing them and the process releases hundreds of progeny into the environment to complete their life cycle. The end of bacteria? Not so fast! Read more →

Posted on November 13, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Physiology & Genetics, Viruses | Permalink | Comments (0)

Andrew Wright (1935−2023)

by Roberto  
This past October 9th, microbiology lost an extraordinary member when Andrew Wright died. Those of us fortunate to have interacted with him over the years lost a very good friend. Even on a first meeting it was impossible not to sense his kindness and genuine interest in the conversation, underscored by his gentle smile and an endearing Scottish accent. Read more →

Posted on November 09, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chemotaxis Praxis

by Janie  
In storytelling, there is a famous principle called Chekhov's gun. "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don't put it there." This pithy (and very debatable) directive, attributed to the eponymous playwright, smells a whole lot like the (similarly very debatable) viewpoint of adaptationism... Read more →

Posted on November 06, 2023 at 12:30 AM in Behavior, Physiology & Genetics, Symbioses | Permalink | Comments (0)

How many bacterial pathogens infect humans?

by Roberto  
In casual conversations I used to say that the number of bacteria causing human disease was small, a few dozen, perhaps around 100. Was I wrong! A paper by Bartlett et al. (2022) puts the number at 1513 and growing rapidly... Read more →

Posted on November 02, 2023 at 01:21 AM in Pathogens | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pore Hopping

by Christoph  
In his re­cent post, Ro­ber­to was pleased to learn of a stu­dy ad­dress­ing bac­terial che­mi­cal eco­lo­gy with­in a very small eco­sys­tem, name­ly the hair fol­li­cles of hu­man skin, where Cuti­bac­ter­ium ac­nes con­tend with Sta­phy­lo­cocci. Here now, it's again about C. acnes, but this time about se­ver­al strains com­pet­ing for growth in hu­man hair fol­li­cles, pores. An eco­lo­gi­cal fa­mi­ly af­fair, so to speak. Read more →

Posted on October 30, 2023 at 02:30 AM in Ecology, Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

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