Small Things Considered

Talmudic Question #148

We are not aware of many biological entities in the shape of a torus (doughnut), certainly not bacteria. Can you think of some, either uni- or multicellular? Read more →

A Lakeside Tale

by Christoph Weigel | How small are bacteria ? And how big can they get as single cells ? For the lower end of the size scale, we know since the work of Jill Banfield's team that a multitude of ultra-small bacteria exist with a spherical diameters of ~0.25 µm and calculated cell vol­umes of ~0.009 µm³. Much larger are newborn cells of Escherichia coli  with a length of... Read more →

Voices and Perspectives from the Past: Memoirs of Scientists and Departmental Histories

by Daniel P. Haeusser | I started a draft of this post while sitting out on the Memorial Union lakeside terrace at the University of Wisconsin Madison. It was about halfway through the Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Conference, a fabulous and inspiring experience that Ananya Sen wrote about here last week. Originating in 1950 and born from the courses of the Luria/Delbrück-organized 'phage group' at Cold Spring Harbor, the early seminal Phage Conference meetings featured the birth of molecular biology through interactions between scientists now known as giants in the field. Read more →

Life at the Edge of SightReview of a Book by Scott Chimileski and Roberto Kolter

by Brian Barry | A few days ago, my neighbor Elio came by and gave me a newly published book, "Life at the Edge of Sight" by Scott Chimi­leski and Roberto Kolter. He said that I might like it because it has a lot of pictures. After I thanked him, he continued somewhat slyly, "Let me know what you think after you've finished reading it." Read more →

The Phage Meeting – Conferencing with Ice Cream in America's Dairyland

by Ananya Sen | The "Phage Meetings" have a long tradition. The first one was organized by Max Delbrück and held at Cold Spring Harbor in 1950. The meetings slowly evolved to include more and more mole­cu­lar genetics of bacteria and nowadays, known as the "Molecular Gene­tics of Bacteria and Phages" meetings, they are held yearly in August at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Read more →

TWiM 160: On the road to virus

The TWiM team provides an update on Zika virus, and reveals a plasmid on the road to becoming a virus. Read more →

In the Beginning… there were Stromatolites

by Gillian Belk | Where can we find the first life forms on Earth? Although we do not yet know the exact microbes that managed to spin together some genetic information and make proteins, we do have evidence of life as far back at 3.5 billion years ago in what are known as stromatolites. Read more →

Microbial Physiology and Diversity: What Was Old is New Again

by George A. O’Toole | I remember thinking at the end of my time as a Ph.D. student in Jorge Escalante-Semerena’s lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that I loved the work I was doing studying anaero­bic physiology and metabolism – specifically the biosynthesis of vitamin B12 synthesis in Salmonella. In my misguided youth, I did from time to time think it would be fun to work on something that was a bit easier to explain to my parents and non-science friends, something more "medically relevant." Read more →

TWiM 159: Immunophage synergy

The TWiM team pays a tribute to Chris Condayan, and investigates the synergy between virus and the innate immune system for clearing bacterial pneumonia by phage therapy. Read more →

A Whiff of Taxonomy – The Life and Times of Deinococcus, "Conan the Bacterium"

by Alex Neu | Microbes exist in practically every environment on Earth. Some of them can endure extreme cold, heat, salinity, or pH con­di­tions. There are some con­di­tions, though, that seem impossible to withstand. Ionizing radiation is an example. I don’t mean your run-of-the-mill back­ground cosmic rays, but intense, radiation so strong that it shatters DNA. But that seems to be where the bacterium Deinococcus radio­du­rans  thrives. Read more →