Small Things Considered

A blog for sharing appreciation of the width and depth of microbes and microbial activities on this planet.

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Luciferin in Scintillons at Sea

by Janie 
Summer through au­tumn is the time of year for ma­rine di­no­fla­gel­lates' famed light fes­ti­vals. If the con­di­tions are just right, the roll of an ocean wave or the push of a ka­yak paddle or the sway of your legs as you wade in deep­er is enough to set the wa­ters... Read more →

Posted on December 15, 2022 at 01:30 AM in Behavior, Physiology & Genetics, Protists | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stay Away, Stay Away – There Is Danger Ahead

by Elio | In ancient times, persons suffering from a dreaded disease believed to be contagious, such as leprosy, were given a bell to ring and thus noisily announce their presence. Healthy people could then move away and try to avoid contact.  Amazingly, bacteria use an analogous strategy. Read more →

Posted on January 27, 2020 at 04:00 AM in Behavior, Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Simple Decision

by Manuel Sanchez | The story to be told here is about how a 'data' biologist had to 'put on his lab coat' to solve a problem of a 'boot biologist.' In 1906 the American zoo­logist Herbert Spencer Jennings conducted an experiment with the protozoan Stentor roeseli to determine how it reacted to an irritant stimulus. S. roeseli is a sessile, trumpet-shaped protozoan. Read more →

Posted on January 20, 2020 at 04:00 AM in Behavior | Permalink | Comments (0)

How to Swim Through Goo: Lessons from a Microbial Menagerie

by Janie | One of my favorite childhood book/TV se­ries was The Ma­gic School Bus, which fol­lows quir­ky sci­ence tea­cher Ms. Frizzle and her class in their ma­gic school bus as they go on field trips to outer space, through the food chain, or in­side the hu­man bo­dy. I espe­cial­ly liked the epi­sode in which the class shrinks down to the mi­cro­sco­pic le­vel... Read more →

Posted on January 13, 2020 at 01:01 AM in Behavior, Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

More on "How to Tell Up And Down"

by Alexander Weitzel
The process I will be discussing is plant gravitropism, the ability of higher plants to sense the vector in which gravity is acting and grow parallel to that vector, either in the positive direction (shoots and leaves) or in the negative direction (roots). Read more →

Posted on April 09, 2018 at 01:30 AM in Behavior, Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Way Up and The Way Down

by Elio
I admit to not having paid much attention to the mechanisms that plants and animals use to stand up straight, or, in the case of plants, also to descend into the soil. Yet, on reflection, the skill in detecting the effect of gravity, now called gravitropism, the older term being geotropism, is essential for life. Read more →

Posted on March 26, 2018 at 05:00 AM in Behavior, Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flagellar Motors: How a Bacterium Shakes its Groove Thing

by Mike Delmont
Many things in our lives are so common that we take them for granted, forgetting their remarkable complexity. These can range from the social microbiology involved in cheese making, to the physics behind the internal combustion engine, or the anato­my/physiology behind taking a couple of steps Read more →

Posted on March 05, 2018 at 05:00 AM in Behavior, Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dial "V" for Murder

by Christoph
If you read this blog fre­quent­ly and, per­haps, be­cause we "em­pha­si­ze the un­usu­al and the un­ex­pect­ed phe­no­me­na", you may feel a little, Um.., bor­ed to see yet ano­ther post on ho­ri­zon­tal gene trans­fer (HGT). But wait, we've ac­tu­al­ly touch­ed this to­pic in few­er than 30 of our 1,200+ posts. That's less than the... Read more →

Posted on January 22, 2018 at 01:16 AM in Behavior, Ecology, Pathogens, Physiology & Genetics | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Human Circadian Rhythm is a Microbial Business

by Elio
Nice of the Nobel Committee to award the 2017 prize for Medicine for work on the circadian rhythm of fruit flies. This gives us an entry into a paper that helps explain how this cycle actually works. It won't surprise readers of this blog that the answer is microbial and concerns, not unexpectedly, the intestinal microbiota Read more →

Posted on October 23, 2017 at 05:00 AM in Behavior, Ecology | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Bacterial Aphrodisiac

by Elio
Sex is kindled by many factors, not all anticipated. Here is an unexpected one: bacteria make an aphrodisiac. But hold on, we know that bacteria engage in untold interactions with eukaryotes whose environment they share, so this should not be surprising. Fact is, the default mode of microbial existence is social, so why not sex? Read more →

Posted on October 02, 2017 at 05:00 AM in Behavior, Symbioses | Permalink | Comments (0)

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