Small Things Considered

Fine Reading: Yet Another Reason to Appreciate Fungi

by Elio
This blog, known as it for taking up the cause of the underdog, was fortified by reading How Fungi Have Shaped Our Understanding of Mammalian Immunology in a recent issue of Cell Host and Microbe. Not only that, but this is an exceptional piece of reviewing. It’s short (a mere three pages), fun to read, and to the point. Read more →

Measuring the Strength and Speed of the Microbial Grappling Hook

by Amber Pollack-Berti
I’ll admit, I’ve been in love with the type IV pili (T4P) for a long time. After memorizing all those complex pathways for regulation and metabolism, there was something so refreshing and accessible about pili. These bacterial surface appendages are, by their nature, mechanical structures. They are... Read more →

Fine Reading: Classics from the Archives of the Royal Society

by Elio
The Royal Society announced that it has put 60 of its most memorable papers online. One of them concerns the discovery of bacteria by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. The original paper as published in the Society’s Philosophical Transactions of 1677-1678 was... Read more →

Cryptic Life in the Antarctic Dry Valleys

by Merry Youle
For the microbiologist, the next best thing to a trip to Mars might well be an expedition to the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Here, in the Earth's coldest and driest deserts, the conditions approach those on our neighboring planet and are thought to also approach the cold-arid limit for life. Not all of the Dry Valleys are... Read more →

Leaf-Cutters Get Their Fix (nitrogen fix, that is)

by Elio
Ants span a great distance within the human psyche, from being insignificant little nuisances to occupying a prominent place in the biological scheme of things. They surely deserve the latter. Not only do they make up a large proportion of the animal biomass (up to 25% of the total in the tropics), but their social qualities... Read more →

Through the Looking Glass: Silicate in Bacterial Spores

by Peter Setlow
Amid the furor surrounding the anthrax attacks in the USA in 2001, significant attention was focused on whether the Bacillus anthracis spores used had been “weaponized” by the adding of a coating of fumed silica to aid in their dispersal. This information might have helped pinpoint where the spores had originated. However, a confusing factor was that... Read more →

An Open Invitation to Argue With Me

by Elio
I have written a “think piece” published in the December 2009 issue of ASM’s journal, Microbe, in which I list my choices of what constitute paradigm shifts in modern microbiology. The choice was entirely idiosyncratic. I am sure that others would include different important developments... Read more →

Talmudic Question #57

by Frank Harold
Does anyone know of a solid example of a biological membrane that arises de novo, rather than by the extension of a pre-existing membrane? Read more →