Small Things Considered

Geography and Geology

by Elio | When Biology emerged as a mo­dern sci­ence du­ring the Re­nais­san­ce, there was only one kind. By and large, the same people car­ried out field ob­ser­va­tions and ex­pe­ri­ments. In time, this uni­ty of ap­proach got lost, with the "na­tu­ra­lists" and the "ex­pe­ri­men­ta­lists" go­ing their se­pa­ra­te ways. Some­time du­ring the 20th cen­tu­ry,... Read more →

Fungomania 1. Who's The Biggest?

by Elio
Anyone can freely claim bragging rights for their favorite topic, but with caution. In this light, the assertion that a mushroom growing in either Michigan or Oregon is both the largest and oldest living thing is questionable. Read more →

Happy Birthday LTEE!

by Roberto | Come this Sunday, February 24, 2019, all of us at STC will be raising a celebratory glass in honor of the remarkable LTEE, the E. coli long-term evolution experiment, which will be reveling in its 31st birthday. Read more →

Rounding up the Honey Bees (2)

by Christoph | Glyphosate is a competitive in­hi­bi­tor of the shi­ki­ma­te path­way that mi­cro­bes and plants use for the syn­the­sis of three aro­ma­tic ami­no acids (Trp,Phe,Tyr) and their de­ri­va­ti­ves. In E. co­li, for­ma­tion of EPSP from S3P and PEP is ca­ta­lyzed by the AroA en­zyme (EPSPS=EPSP syn­tha­se). Gly­pho­sa­te com­petes with PEP for bind­ing to EPSP syn­tha­se in a con­cen­tra­tion-de­pen­dent... Read more →

Rounding up the Honey Bees (1)

by Christoph | Why would I deviate here from STC's habit to rather not  feature the new­est re­sults of tren­dy re­search to­pics? The rea­son comes hid­den in a short no­tice in Science  by War­ren Corn­wall: "...The new re­search is cer­tain to make a con­tro­ver­sial her­bi­ci­de even more of a flash­point." He re­fer­red, of course, to a re­cent pa­per pub­lish­ed in PNAS... Read more →

State of the World's Fungi

by Roberto | We want to bring to your attention an outstanding new report on fungi from the Kew Royal Botanic Garden. It makes for great reading and clearly points out the many roles that fungi play on the functioning of Earth's biosphere. Read more →

Needles in a Metagenomic Haystack:Hunting for Molecular Plastic-Chewers

by Janie Kim | Science and speculative fiction works may warn of im­mi­nent threats like hostile extraterrestrial beings or the artificial general intelligence of the technological singularity. But the more humdrum overabundance of plastic waste, an issue closer to home and our every­day lives, is just as deserving of fear. Read more →

Take a Deep Breath of... Methane

by Christoph | If you were faced with the task of pre­par­ing a lec­ture se­ri­es on "ge­ne­ral bac­te­ri­al phy­si­o­lo­gy", you could ea­si­ly choose Pseu­do­mo­nas ae­ru­gi­no­sa  as your com­pan­ion, your mo­del or­gan­ism, to co­ver (al­most) eve­ry to­pic. Yet, when it comes to me­ta­bo­lic ver­sa­ti­li­ty, you could also think of Rho­do­pseu­do­mo­nas pal­us­tris  as an al­ter­na­ti­ve. This Al­pha­pro­teo­bac­te­ri­um of the... Read more →

Psilocybin (A Snippet)

by Elio | I suppose that among the readers of this blog interest in the biology and biochemistry of psilocybin may outweigh that in its recreational value (but I am not taking bets). Anyhow, there is something to report on its biosynthesis and, less so, on what's in it for the mushroom that makes it Read more →

Mono Lake (a Snippet)

by Elio | Travel down the eastern slope of California's Sierra Nevada and you will run into a number of breathtaking sights. Ranking high among them is Mono Lake, a large shallow lake that sports a collection of strange limestone columns. Protruding some 30 feet above the water surface, these structures, known as chimneys, consist of calcium carbonate... Read more →