Small Things Considered

Talmudic Question #178

Many environmental bacteria appear to be ob­li­gate oli­go­trophs, that is they can only be cul­ti­va­ted on media con­tain­ing very low nu­trient con­cen­tra­tions. There are pro­bab­ly many rea­sons for this.  Which one do you favor and why? Read more →

TWiM 220: From Mars to the vagina

Methane-producing bacteria might survive beneath the surface of Mars, and identification of a cytopathogenic toxin in a bacterium associated with preterm birth. Read more →

The ASM President Speaks: "ASM Touches So Many, At So Many Levels"

by Robin Patel
I have been touched with the way ASM unites microbiologists, elevating microbiology for scientists and the communities in which we live. It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve as ASM President over the past year, a year which could reasonably be considered, the year everyone was a microbiologist. Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Purifying Selection

by Elio
To me at least, this is a relatively unaccustomed term for an old phe­no­me­non, namely the removal of deleterious mutants from a popula­tion. (As Christoph points out, this does not refer to clean­ing up your lab bench.) Also known as negative selection, puri­fy­ing selection results in the stabili­zation of the population by ridding... Read more →

Fucoidans, A Feast for Few

by Janie
Fucoidans make life complicated for microbes. They are cell wall polysaccharides that comprise 23% of dry brown algae's weight and resist microbial degradation longer than other algal polymers. Their sheer grab-bag variety... Read more →

Streptomyces spores taking a ride...

by Christoph
Streptomycetes, these non-mo­tile Ac­ti­no­bac­te­ria that are cap­able of my­cel­ial growth much like fungi, are quite in­vent­ive when it comes to the dis­tri­bu­tion of their spores. They don't just re­ly on en­chant­ing scents like geos­min that they emit to at­tract spring­tails, which trans­port their spores over long dis­tan­ces (see Ro­berto's re­cent post). They also rou­tine­ly em­ploy bac­te­rial trans­port wor­kers. Read more →

Let Smell Guide You

by Roberto
Anosmia: the loss of the sense of smell. Un­til re­cent­ly, I was clue­less about anos­mia. That changed March 22nd when my good friend Hera Vla­ma­kis aler­ted me to a New York Times ar­ticle de­scrib­ing anos­mia as a pos­sible symp­tom of COVID-19. My self-eva­lua­tion rou­tine changed hence­forth to in­clude a test of my ca­pa­ci­ty to smell. Now, during...
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