Small Things Considered

Geobacter: Microbial Superhero

by Suzanne Winter
If the power of Superman resided solely in his supernatural abilities, then Bruce Wayne’s Batman would never have been able to compete on his level. But when the other factors that superheroes depend upon are accounted for — sidekicks, spandex, sarcasm — both Superman and Batman can claim success in the world of do-goodery…
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About the Events in Japan

by Elio
This blog celebrates the Small Things and, by implication, those who relish their study. Thus, I think now of our colleagues who worked or have trained in Japan. One way to express our solidarity is to mention the names of scientists who exemplify the great achievements of Japanese microbiology, earlier… Read more →

A Viral Pyramid Scheme

by Merry Youle
In order to release their newly assembled virions, most viruses lyse the cells that have fed and housed them. This lysis is not a haphazard affair. Some phages, for example, employ a holin-endolysin system to rupture their host's cell membrane and digest the cell wall at a precisely controlled… Read more →

Fine Reading: Cell Biology of Bacteria

by Elio
The publication of an exciting book, Cell Biology of Bacteria, sent me into a reflective frame of mind. You see, I am among the few left from the beginning of the modern era of Bacterial Cell Biology. When I was a graduate student, in the early 1950s, “Bacterial Cytology,” as it was then… Read more →

Targeting an Achilles' Heel of Plasmodium

by S. Marvin Friedman
Plasmodium falciparum accounts for 85% of all cases of malaria, and thus is the most deadly of the many species in this genus. About 250 million people are infected annually, of which about one million die. Of these deaths, 90% occur south of the Sahara desert in Africa, and most… Read more →

Talmudic Exobiology Redux

We recently asked this Talmudic Question as our TQ #71: As NASA’s hotshot exobiologist, you are asked to design an Earth satellite system in which some organism(s) can live actively (i.e.. no spores) for millennia. How would you go about it? Specify an orbit of your choice. Read more →

Gut Microbes and the Infant Brain: A Surprising Symbiosis

by Micah Manary
The ancient genes versus environment argument (i.e., nature versus nurture) about the development of the infant human brain has taken a swerve in a direction few thought possible. A recent paper by investigators from Sweden and Singapore reports on studies using a mouse model to demonstrate that the presence of the… Read more →

Talmudic Question #72

Suppose a marine bacterium evolved the perfect phage defense, one that no phage could overcome. A thousand years hence, what changes would you expect to see in the marine microbial community? Read more →