Small Things Considered

Winter Vacation

by the STC team
We take advantage of this being the season for rejoicing, yippieh!, and take our customary winter two week vacation. We hope that you have enjoyed the past year with us and that you will return as this blog begins the tenth year of this existence. We will endeavor to... Read more →

Agar Art Contest an All-Around Winner

by Jamie Henzy
Few people know that Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, loved to create pictures on his agar plates, rendering images of ballerinas, houses, and fighters with his beloved microbes. Writing for the Smithsonian magazine, Rob Dunn states that, "Fleming's discovery... was a function of his eye for the rare, an artist's eye. Other scientists had undoubtedly seen Penicillium growing on their petri dishes before Fleming, but... Read more →

Retrospective, December 2015

by Elio
We list here what we posted in the previous half year. We hope you find this useful. Read more →

Back from the ISS – A Snippet

by Christoph
In this blog, we don't usually consider big, multicellular animals, say, arthropods like Drosophila, ne­matodes like C. elegans, or tardigrades like Hypsibius dujardini. We do make exceptions for the hosts of mi­cro­bial endosymbionts. Why allow the 'water bears' (tardigrades)? With body lengths of 0.5 ‒ 1 mm, they are a bit too big to be honorary mi­crobes but... Read more →

Megastructures: Defense Fortifications of Bacillus subtilis for Protection from Myxococcus xanthus

by Veronica W. Rowlett
Predator-prey relationships exist all over the world of living things, from microbes to animals and humans. In defense against predators, animal prey use varied strategies such as hiding from, distracting, escaping, or fighting predators. Humans build walls and ramparts to protect themselves within cities from potential animal or human aggressors. But how do bacteria defend themselves... Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Gene Drive

by Christoph
Back in 2003, the British geneticist Austin Burt suggested the development of "Site-specific selfish genes as tools for the control and genetic engineering of natural populations". He wanted to stimulate discussions on the desirability ‒ and feasibility ‒ of eradicating or genetically modifying particular species, namely the Anopheles mosquitoes, which are... Read more →