Which cause more severe diseases in humans, RNA or DNA viruses? Read more →
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Transient Thoughts on Transduction
by Roberto — What with the all the talk about CRISPR, the renewed interest in phage therapy, the widespread occurrence of huge phages (to mention but a few of the reasons phage are constantly in the news these days), it's no exaggeration to say that once again in biology "phage are all the rage"... Read more →
Fine Reading: Evolution of Pathogen Tolerance
by Roberto — While reading a review yesterday, I recalled a conversation I had with a student nearly forty years ago. He did not appear interested in the subject of my lectures – bacterial genetics and physiology – so I was curious to know the reasons why. Read more →
TWiM #250: E-Scaffolds and Paper Stickers
An electrochemical scaffold that delivers safe doses of hypochlorous acid to treat wound infections in humans, and a method for sampling and monitoring bacteria and viruses or surfaces using plain paper stickers. Read more →
Goodbye Sandcastle, Hello Microbial Bio-Brick
by Janie — The foundation of much of modern civilization? Sand, actually. It's a key ingredient of concrete, and to construct any building you need a lot of it. It has to be sand from oceans, beaches, riverbeds, deltas, lakes. All that desert sand made slippery-smooth by wind erosion won't do... Read more →
Farewell San Francisco Sourdough?
by Roberto — Back in 1980, when I was a post-doc in the San Francisco Bay Area, I began to develop a taste for what I considered a truly unique bread: San Francisco sourdough. There was a certain mystique to it, everyone familiar with it claimed there was nothing like it anywhere else... Read more →
Replay: On Teaching
by Stanley Falkow — A graduate student came to my office recently to say that she was increasingly bothered by anxiety and the ‘terror’ of having to speak at laboratory meetings. She had also learned a month ago that she was expected to lecture to a class organized by her mentor. The thought of… Read more →
Rainfall and a Phyllosphere's Microbiota
by Mechas Zambrano and Roberto — Where do the microbes that colonize newly emerging ecosystems come from? Plants are ideal systems to address this fundamental question in microbial ecology. When a seed germinates, new ecosystems emerge as the plant grows and acquires its microbiota... Read more →
Borrelia and it's not-so-loose ends (2|2)
by Christoph — I wrote in the first part that "in the the second part I will consider their extravagant periplasmic(!) flagella. There will be no "loose ends" left in either part, I promise." Spoiler: no "loose ends" but a (knowledge) gap in the middle, that is, when it comes to cell division in Borrelia. Here it goes... Read more →
On Stories and Science, Plus Fish
by Janie — It's probably fair to say that people, when afraid, turn to stories and to science for solace. The last year and a half has solidified that: the yarns spun range from conspiracy theories to escapist novels that transport the reader far, far away from bleaker realities (The Midnight Library phenomenon, anyone?)... Read more →