Small Things Considered

TWiM #47: Resistance on the Surface

Vincent, Michael, and Elio discuss the horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes on metal surfaces, and using bacteriophage to reverse antibiotic resistance. Read more →

Retrospective, December 2012

We continue our semi-annual ritual and offer this quick tour of our blog postings since our June 2012 Retrospective. Read more →

A Whiff of Taxonomy – Verrucomicrobia, The Bacterial Warthogs

by Elio
Unlike warthogs, likely to be considered beautiful only by their mother, the Verrucomicrobia (verruca means “wart, thus the warty bacteria; more about this later) have considerable appeal, be it morphological, physiological, or ecological. This is yet another phylum that owes its recognition to nucleic acid technology. Although few of its members… Read more →

Love At First Zap

by Gemma Reguera
Although both cooperation and conflict are decisive forces in evolution, some of the most successful microbial strategies for survival have arisen from cooperation. At times, two or more microorganisms can even come together to breathe as one. Breathing, or respiration, accomplishes a most challenging fête: the disposal of electrons generated in metabolic… Read more →

TWiM #46: Spore!

Vincent, Michael, and Elio meet up with Jonathan Dworkin to discuss how bacteria form spores and how they return to vegetative growth. Read more →

Book Review: Son of Double Helix

by Elio
This reissuing of The Double Helix, now adorned with umpteen photographs, reprints of first pages of articles, personal letters (some in scrawled—illegible—handwriting), sketches, etc., is not your usual reprint, but I hasten to say that it does make sense. The added material fleshes out the events of that time, with collected… Read more →

Why Medical Microbiology Is Not Like Stamp Collecting

by Elio
I started teaching microbiology to medical students in 1958, at a time when biomedical science was in its full ascendancy. Grant money was there practically for the asking, jobs were plentiful, universities and their medical schools were frenetically building up their science base. Not entirely surprising, the general feeling of young… Read more →