Small Things Considered

Another Cell Bites the Dust

by Janie | Almost a century ago, Walther Goebl and Oswald Avery observed that Streptococcus pneumoniae cells lysed upon entering stationary phase, but the mechanism behind this autolysis remained elusive. Read more →

Talmudic Question #167

What is a microbe? (Defend your definition.)
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...et respice finem (3' –OH)

by Christoph | Worry not, this is no lengthy con­tem­pla­tion on the use of clas­si­cal La­tin in sci­en­ti­fic lang­uage. It's a not-so-short piece to em­pha­size that it makes sense to mark the ends of non-bran­ched poly­mers like DNA and RNA, and there­by de­fine their che­mi­cal di­rec­tio­na­li­ty. Bio­in­for­ma­ti­cians who rou­tine­ly work with DNA and RNA in fasta... Read more →

«let not Vanity ſeduce you...»

by Christoph | «let not Vanity ſeduce you to per­ſiſt in your Miſ­take». No, it's not a spel­ling mis­take that you see here. It's the 'long ſ', which was used in print well into the 18th cen­tu­ry. And also the ca­pi­ta­li­za­tion of nouns, un­usual to­day, was com­mon in 1743 when Hen­ry Ba­ker's trea­tise The Mi­cro­sco­pe Made Ea­sy was pub­lished... Read more →

Are all stresses oxidative stresses?

by J. Jeffrey Morris | I have a confes­sion to make. I get stres­sed. A lot. I think I've spent the bet­ter part of the last three years with the va­gue feel­ing I'm for­get­ting some­thing real­ly im­por­tant. I bet there are a few people in the rea­ding au­di­ence that can sym­pa­thize – it seems to be a pret­ty com­mon ex­pe­ri­ence for as­sis­tant pro­fes­sors. The stres­sors come... Read more →

TWiM #200: In the company of Elio

Vincent, Michele, and Michael travel to San Diego to reminisce with Elio about his career, his work in microbiology, and his love for microbes and mushrooms. Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Trophosome

by Elio | A rather specific term, trophosome refers – as per the Wikipedia – to 'an organ found in some animals that houses symbiotic bacteria that provide food for their host.' Trophé (τροφή) denotes nourishment, soma (σῶμα), body, denoting that trophosomes are intimately involved in their host's nutrition. Read more →

A Sulfur For An Oxygen

by Elio | Tampering with the chem­is­try of our ho­liest of mo­le­cules may seem sa­cri­le­gious, but it is wide­spread and con­spi­cuous. In fact, DNA mo­di­fi­ca­tions abound. Think, for star­ters of DNA me­thyl­a­tion, which is the main tool of epi­ge­ne­tics, or an even lon­ger known mo­di­fi­ca­tion, the DNA gly­co­sy­la­tion that in some phages pro­tects their DNA from... Read more →