Small Things Considered

Fine Literature: Bacterial Shape – Not a Small Thing

by Elio  
From time to time, I will list review articles that I found inspiring and enlightening. To start with, I greatly enjoyed the following: Kevin D. Young. 2006. The Selective Value of Bacterial Shape. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 70 (3): 660-703... Read more →

Talmudic Question #16

Invertebrates are said to have only innate immunity. Why do you suppose they have not evolved acquired immunity, as vertebrates have done? Read more →

A "Compte Rendu"

Some distinguished French journals, both old and contemporary, are called "Comptes rendus", a term that to me has the right sound for this entry. Loosely translated it means "accounts rendered." I wish to render an account of this blog's first six month of existence. Some statistics to date: 46 posts,.. Read more →

Structural Grace

by Elio  
Francis Crick made several pencil drawings of his concept of the structure of DNA. This one (1953) seems particularly graceful... Read more →

Two-For-the-Price-of-One Symbiosis

by Elio  
We are used to titillating stories of symbiotic mutualism where the host and the symbiont do amazing things together that neither could do alone. Think of lichens, root nodules in legumes, tube worms in deep sea vents. Such phenomena make us... Read more →

Talmudic Question #15

Why are only prokaryotes known to carry out biological nitrogen fixation? Read more →

It Takes Three to Tango

by Merry Youle  
Glassy-winged sharpshooters, long notorious in wine country as an insect vector for Pierce's disease in grapes, have recently achieved notice for employing not one but two bacterial endosymbionts to provide essential nutrients. One... Read more →

Talmudic Question #14

Why are so many more phyla of Gram negative bacteria than of Gram positives (at least in the more conventionally used phylogenetic schemes)? Read more →

Mushrooms And Global Warming

by Elio  
Global warming may have a silver lining, at least for those who enjoy wild mushrooms (e.g., the writer of this blog). According to an article in Science, in the last 50 years many British mushrooms have doubled the length of their fruiting season, mirroring the rise in local temperature. The... Read more →

Speak or Swim – But Not Both

by Elio  
Many pathogenic bacteria "speak" a chemical language by inserting proteins into host cells that affect the microbe’s ability to invade or damage the host. For the insertion, they use a complex needle made up of a number of proteins. Similar proteins in similar structural... Read more →