Small Things Considered

Holidays 2007

by Elio and Merry | We are taking a holiday break. We wish all our readers and their microbiomes a happy holiday season and a symbiotic new year. Read more →

It's a Chaperonin, It's a Toxin, It's...

by Elio | Antlions are insects, relatives of the lacewings, that snare ants by making conical pits in loose sand. An unwary ant or other insect slips down the treacherous slope, to be met by a partially buried antlion larva that is eager and ready to suck it dry. To ensure that the prey... Read more →

The Perfect Pitch

by Elio | If you're not into mushrooms, you don't know what you're missing. When hunting for wild mushrooms, all your senses will be satisfied, and so will your scientific curiosity. Consider the dispersal of fungal spores and the variety of ways that fungi have evolved to do it. Some use wind transport, others employ water droplets, yet others... Read more →

Talmudic Question #25

by guest author Bill Martin:
If one believes (as some out there do) that there was a free-living LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor), then what kind of lipids did it have? Read more →

Protists in Wonderland

by Elio | Protists are among the most unconventional of creatures, especially when it comes to their genome acrobatics. A recent issue of Science has two mind-boggling examples. Read more →