Small Things Considered

Let's Get Ready, Xylella Has Arrived in Europe

by Mercè Piqueras
As a good Mediterranean, I have always used olive oil, preferably extra-virgin olive oil. Now I am thinking about stockpiling it. Its price will surely skyrocket if Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium that over four years has attacked two million olive trees in Italy, continues to spread unhindered. A rise in the price of... Read more →

Fine Reading: No Growth!

by Roberto
One of my most memorable early lessons in microbial physiology (and one that I still love to challenge general audiences with ) was being asked how long would it take E. coli  cells to reach the mass of the Earth (under conditions of unrestricted growth). It was and remains a wonderful exercise that allows... Read more →

E Pluribus Duo : A Review of Two Recent Books on Microbiomes

by Daniel Haeusser
In place of a weekly sermon this month, my church is having members give TED-style talks in their fields of ex­per­tise. Like the actual TED series, the idea is for speakers to share "ideas worth spreading", relating novel developments in their field that are shaping humanity’s view of the world, while also... Read more →

Who Dares Doubt The Decomposing Powers Of Fungi?

by David Lipson
Apparently, it is widely accepted that it took fungi 120 million years to figure out how to decompose woody plants. Hence lignin-rich materials accumulated along with the appearance of widespread forests in the Carboniferous Period, which led to huge coal deposits until white rot fungi finally caught up... Read more →

TWiM #156: Gifted microbes and defensive symbiosis

The TWiM team explains the use of microbial genome mining to identify new drugs, and how a bacterial symbiont protects flies against parasitoid wasps. Read more →

A Star-Studded Phantastic Voyage of Phages

by Jamie Henzy
In which the writer attempts to convey the abundant charm of: Thinking Like a Phage: The Genius of the Viruses That Infect Bacteria and Archaea, by Merry Youle. Read more →

My Favorite Talmudic Questions

by Elio
A little over 10 years ago, on Dec 1, 2006 to be precise, the first Talmudic Question made its appearance in these pages. Here is a dozen of some of my personal favorites of the 146 we have used so far. Read more →

The Spell of Coxiella

by Elio
A few years ago, we celebrated one of the prettiest discoveries in modern microbiology, achieving the growth of Coxiella burnetii out­side its host cells in laboratory media. The excitement was justified, as this organism had been a prototype of a strictly intracellular organism. Best I know, it does not naturally grow outside of cells, despite having the ability to do so. Read more →

Talmudic Question #146

The Gram-negative outer membrane li­po­po­ly­sac­cha­ri­de (LPS) has three components, Lipid A, the core, and the O-anti­gen side-chain. The O-side chain and parts of the core can be de­le­ted. In con­trast, Lipid A ap­pears to be es­sen­tial. Why do you think that is? Read more →

This Week in Microbiology #154 & #155

TWiM #154: Rigor, lotteries, and moonshots with special guest, Arturo Casadevall.
TWiM #155: Living in the stomach of a cell: an update on Legionella in the Flint water supply. Read more →