Suppose you're a sessile marine creature looking to put down "roots" some place. Would you choose to attach to a living organism or to something dead or inanimate?
Read more →
Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss how temperature triggers Neisseria menigitidis immune evasion, and protection of mice from ionizing radiation by feeding them black mushrooms.
Read more →
The term "Microbiome" is being used in two ways; either to denote all microbes at a site or all their genomes.Both can't be right, so let's have a poll!
Read more →
by S. Marvin Friedman | Gone are the days when bacteria were thought to just grow and divide and not bother to converse with one another. That simple idea has produced mountains of data and most of what we know about bacterial physiology is based on this notion. It turns out, as we know now…
Read more →
by Elio | In its early days, ca. 1945-1965, molecular biology was a particularly collegial undertaking, characterized by free sharing of research data and a relative lack of egotistical behavior. The reason for this marvel may well have been that there was so much to discover—so many low hanging fruits—that there…
Read more →
by Monika Buczek | As humans we live our lives in 24-hour increments—waking, eating, and sleeping at specific times dictated to us not solely by our discerning willpower, but also by the greater underlying persuasion of our circadian rhythm. Based on the earth’s rotation from day into night, we have internalized a deeply…
Read more →
Vincent, Elio, Michael, and Michele discuss the curious outer membrane vesicles of Neisseria meningitides, and sources of Clostridium difficile infection revealed by genome sequencing.
Read more →
by Elio | Microbiology, we will agree, is a vast subject where many important aspects are likely to evade one’s sight. Here’s an example—the formation of vesicles from the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. This phenomenon, known as vesiculation, is widespread and noteworthy for enhancing our understanding of bacterial capabilities and for…
Read more →
by Elio | The famous X-ray crystallography image of DNA from calf thymus, taken by Rosalind Franklin and Ray Gosling. Linus Pauling's annotations are to the right of the photo. May 2, 1952. It says: “Franklin& Gosling. Sodium deoxyribose nucleate Type B”...
Read more →
The purpose of this blog is to share our appreciation for the width and depth of the microbial activities on this planet. We will emphasize the unusual and the unexpected phenomena for which we have a special fascination... (more)