Small Things Considered

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 →

How Bacteria on our Skin Might Prevent Skin Cancer

by Jammal Abu-khazneh and Chih-Kai Yang | The skin is the largest organ in the human body and is home to diverse microbial communities. While this may be unsettling for some germophobes, recent work has uncovered potential health benefits from bacteria that are part of our normal skin microbiomes. Read more →

The Truth Is In The Outcome

by Elio | Coprolites - fossil feces - are nothing short of a marvel. A message from the past, they divulge important information about what their makers lived on as well as on how they lived Read more →

To The Bottom of the Sea

by Elio | Are there instances of water-containing sites on Earth that (pardon the expression) have not yet been metagenomicized? Surely many remain, but their numbers must be dwindling quite rapidly. Read more →

Of Mountains and Microbes…

by David Lipson | Thanks, Elio – this is a fascinating post. The silica cycle indeed deserves respect, and it is probably responsible for major planetary events, such as driving the evolution of C4 photosynthesis in land plants since the formation of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau helped drive down CO₂ levels to their low, pre-industrial levels. Some... Read more →