Small Things Considered

One Size Sometimes Can Fit All

by Merry Youle | In 2008, a man died in a Swedish hospital from an antibiotic-resistant urinary tract infection that he had acquired on a recent trip to New Delhi. The bug responsible was a Klebsiella pneumoniae strain that was found to harbor a new, plasmid-encoded, antibiotic resistance gene. By 2009, this antibiotic resistance factor… Read more →

A Bug in a Bug in a Bug

by Elio | Rattling around inside my head for some time has been the reported discovery that there are bacteria that live within other bacteria. To me, this is an honest-to-goodness gee-whiz piece of microbial lore. Made me wonder why the story had not been followed up on. Could be because you have… Read more →

21 Blogs Considered

Fellow blogger César Sánchez has posted Microbiology Blogs: A list of 20 great blogs for microbe lovers. Modestly, he omitted his own notable blog, Twisted Bacteria. We are in good company. Thanks, César. Read more →

Fine Reading: Microbial Evolution

by Merry Youle | Darwin focused his attention on visible life forms…and there the evolutionary focus remained until recent decades when the microbes seized the limelight. The American Academy of Microbiology (ASM’s honorific leadership group) acknowledged this overdue shift two years ago, on the 150th anniversary of publication of On the Origin of Species. The AAM brought together… Read more →

Bacteria Activate Fungal Gene Clusters

by S. Marvin Friedman | Fungi are notorious for their ability to produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites, including antibiotics, statins, immunosuppressants, mycotoxins, and others. A veritable pharmacopeia. Interestingly, many of the gene clusters involved in the biosynthesis of these compounds are silent under normal laboratory conditions. In some cases, the synthesis of these… Read more →

Talmudic Question #79

What's your guess as to the number of different kinds of viruses that can infect a single species on average? Read more →

Wolbachia: The Difference Between a Nuisance and a Threat?

by Jamie Schafer | No summer evening outdoors seems complete without a mosquito bite (or ten). While these bites are often just a nuisance, they can also serve as the point of transmission for many mosquito-borne diseases: West Nile virus, dengue virus, yellow fever virus, malaria, and the filarial nematodes that cause elephantiasis… Read more →

Fine Reading: Two Fine Protist Blogs

by Elio | Merry and I would like you to know about two specialized blogs that deal mainly with protists, one called Skeptic Wonder, the other The Ocelloid. The first one is a spirited blog whose history goes back to 2008, the second a recent addition to the Scientific American Blog Network.... Read more →

Phage DNA: Going with the Flow

by Merry Youle | We've heard it said so often, it must be true. After tailed phages adsorb to their host and bind securely to their specific receptor on the cell surface, they inject their DNA into the cell and the infection is off and running. This injection notion arose naturally from the classic… Read more →

How to Escape a Deadly Embrace

by Elio | The space around a single soil particle can be one hell of a battlefield. Here, nematode worms consume bacteria, bacteria fight back and kill them, fungi suck the worms dry, and so on. Not a moment of peace. These battles are as intense as they are intricate, yet we know little… Read more →