Small Things Considered

A naturalist's book of viruses

by Jamie Henzy | Who isn't intrigued by viruses? Capable of wiping out entire populations, causing epidemics of biblical proportions, and wrecking crops, viruses entered the consciousness of humans because of their destructive potential. Too tiny to be seen, they were born from Koch's postulates, at first existing only in the imaginations of their early discoverers, such as Beijerinck, Ivanovsky, Twort, and d'Herelle. In the 1940s, electron micrographs revealed the first shadowy images of bacteriophage particles, and the eeriness of their outlines encouraged dread and captured the imagination of those who saw them. Read more →

Microbial Reading Roundup

by Daniel P. Haeusser | Today I wanted to catch up with some recent books that visitors to this blog may have interest in adding to their microbiological library. So here is a roundup of six academic microbial titles of note that make up a trio of related pairs. Read more →

The Invention of Nature: Big Picture Science, with Passion

by Jamie Henzy | Scientists at one time shared the title of "natural phi­losophers", and largely spoke the same language. As their tech­ni­ques grew in sophistication, they set as their goal nothing less than the build­ing of a giant tower of Knowledge of all Nature. When God saw this blatant display of hubris, she struck their tongues so that their speech could no longer be understood to one another, and they scat­tered far and wide to found their individual disciplines, then sub-disciplines, then sub-sub-disci­plines, in a never-ending fractal cleavage. Read more →

Small Friends Books: Microbiology for All Ages

by Daniel P. Haeusser | We recently featured research on black band disease in corals. Today, I highlight illustrated children’s books of microbiology. One, titled Zobi and the Zoox turns to the beneficial, symbiotic role that microbes play in corals. This lovely award-winning book is part of a series from Small Friends Books, which to date includes another picture book and a new graphic novel, each "created through a collaboration of artists, writers, scientists, educators and designers." These books combine microbiology education with adventure stories that highlight interactions (particularly cooperation) between microbes and larger organisms. Factual and compelling, their text and images should appeal to children and adults alike. Read more →

In the Company of Microbes:Ten Years of Small Things Considered

by Elio | This is the 10^th anniversary of this blog, perhaps noteworthy because, as I say, "blog years are like dog years." In celebration, a book has just been published by the American Society for Microbiology Press entitled "In the Company of Microbes: Ten Years of Small Things Considered." The book consists of... Read more →

The “Microbe Hunters” by Paul DeKruif - A Major Force in Microbiological History

by Elio | The chances are good that when you ask a senior microbiologist how he or she got into this science, they will tell you that they were influenced as teenagers by reading “Microbe Hunters.” I was about 14 years old when I did, and I became transfixed by the glorious and... Read more →

Books for the Giving Season: Viral Readings

by Daniel P. Haeusser | As the year closes out, we enter into the giving seasons of a variety of traditions. Lurking among the more pleasant types of giving is the 2013 – 2014 flu season, a viral gift that often keeps on giving. To combat this, reminders about the potential dangers of influenza and the… Read more →

Book Review: Viruses: Essential Agents of Life

by Welkin Johnson | Virology was born in 1898, and has suffered from sampling bias ever since. For decades, viruses were defined by what they were not: not as big as a bacterium, not visible with a microscope, not culturable in the absence of a host. At the dawn of the 20th century, undiscovered viruses… Read more →

Book Review: Son of Double Helix

by Elio | This reissuing of The Double Helix, now adorned with umpteen photographs, reprints of first pages of articles, personal letters (some in scrawled—illegible—handwriting), sketches, etc., is not your usual reprint, but I hasten to say that it does make sense. The added material fleshes out the events of that time, with collected… Read more →

Two New Books (with my name on the spine )

by Elio | When I’m not blogging, I tend to get involved in book publishing. Twelve, so far. Mostly what I do is editing, although I have been an honest co-author for a few. My most recent venture was a project somewhat simpler than most. I had served as the editor-in-chief of the 3rd edition of… Read more →