Best we know, which contains the largest number of species: the Bacteria, the Fungi, or the Protists?
Read more →
« June 2021 | Main | August 2021 »
Talmudic Question #188
The Life of an RNA Molecule, Through a Phase-Separation Lens
by Janie | Inside of a cell, some biomolecules cluster together to behave as a liquid. These liquids can reversibly form distinct phases, like the classic example of lava lamps, where mineral oil blobs slip and slide off the water-and-alcohol mix. This is liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS)... Read more →
Fine Reading: Did You Know That Algae Can Be Pathogens?
by Elio | Not all of us, me included, are fully aware that the algae include pathogens of many vertebrates, such as humans and domesticated animals. The most important ones are Prototheca bovis (once P. zopfii) and P. wickerhamii. A fine overview of this subject by Shave, Millyard and May from the University of Birmingham, UK, has been... Read more →
Paradigm Shifts, Paradigm Drifts
by Elio | In 1962, Thomas Kuhn wrote a book of seminal importance, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions," in which "one conceptual world view is replaced by another." Paradigm shifts occur... Read more →
Teachers Corner: The Name for the Small Things We Consider
by Elio & Roberto | As microbiology teachers, many of us delight in retelling the 17th century story of Leeuwenhoek peering through his microscope at samples from his dental plaque or Delft canal waters and naming the creatures he observed "animalcules." However, that story is apocryphal because Leeuwenhoek spoke Dutch. The words he used to describe Read more →
Care For A Glass Of Chicha?
by Elio | Alcoholic beverages typify human societies. Think of champagne and the French, scotch and the Scot, and so on. In the Western regions of South America, mainly Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, the main artisanal alcoholic drink made by the native people is called chicha. Read more →
Pictures Considered #53 : The ocean water column is profoundly dark...
by Christoph | ...for the most part. And it's vastly deeper than the diagram Roberto showed in his recent post "The Biological Pump." The euphotic and mesopelagic zone sizes are correct, but do not even approximately corelate with their vertical representation in the diagram. Why is this a point... Read more →
Bacterial Symbionts Halt The Disease Burden of Dengue Virus
by Rupinder Kaur, Sarah R. Bordenstein, and Seth R. Bordenstein | Amidst a global surge and focus on COVID-19 infections, other diseases that have had and will continue to have impact on human health cannot be forgotten. Dengue, for example, continues to be a major mosquito-borne viral infection, impacting more than 100 million people per year. Dengue can inflict... Read more →