Small Things Considered

We remember Tom Brock

by Elio | Tom Brock (1926 − 2021) can rea­di­ly be con­sider­ed the father of ex­tre­mo­phile mi­cro­bio­logy. He pio­neered the study of high tem­pe­ra­ture-lov­ing mi­crobes, by in­ves­ti­gat­ing, in a near­ly fro­lic­some way, the hot springs of Yel­low­stone Park. He car­ried out this work pret­ty much alone, with both ex­pe­ri­men­tal in­ge­nuity and con­cept­ual gusto, ... Read more →

Fungomania II. A (not so) new face of Fusarium

by Roberto | This is a story about fusaria by an admittedly non-expert. Much of what I write in this post I just recently learned, thus revealing from the start my naïveté on the fascinating subject of fungi as high protein foods. Read more →

Antibiotics and the Foods We Eat

by Roberto | When it comes to the ani­mals that hu­mans raise to eat, a quick look at their num­bers proves sober­ing. World­wide, there are some 650 mill­ion pigs, 1 bill­ion heads of cattle and 26 bill­ion chickens. Such numbers ca­not be achieved by tra­di­tio­nal ani­mal rear­ing pract­ices that use ex­ten­sive surface areas. Rather, most of these ani­mals are grown... Read more →

Towards a More Open Science

by Roberto | If there's a silver lining to these very trying pandemic time, it's a sense that the scientific community is moving more in the direction of open science. In the pre-pandemic era (which now feels eons ago) we commented on the problems with for-profit publishing and offered optimistic outlooks in terms of novel publishing strategies such as... Read more →

From the Kolter Lab

by Elio | Gemma Reguera at Michigan State and once a co-blogger here, will soon be the editor in chief of the ASM journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. George O'Toole at Dartmouth will become editor in chief of ASM's Journal of Bacteriology. Steven Finkel at the University of Southern California... Read more →

Bacterial Blues

by Janie | The color blue is an oddity. Of all pigments in nature – chemicals that selectively absorb and reflect certain wave­lengths of visible light – blue ones are among the rarest. Pro­ducing blue dyes was once such a costly business that medieval Europeans consid­ered it to be as precious as gold... Read more →

History of Microbiology Puzzler

by Roberto | Have a lot of time on your hands? Having trouble with sleepless nights? Consider working on this History of Microbiology puzzler. Read more →

Microcosm: The Current Issue

by Elio and Roberto | The current issue of Microcosm (Fall 2020) is notable for its focus on vaccines, hence this special mention. Read more →

On Old Age

by Elio | In a couple of months, my age will be divisible by 31 (no, I won't be 62 years old, nor 124). Does this level of senectitude give me permission to muse about having become an "old scientist?" What do you think?   Read more →

The Wonders of Microbial Domestication

by Roberto | This morning, while running with the dogs, my mind drifted to thinking about how humans domesticated wolves, as far back as 20,000 years ago, to give rise to this remarkable mutualistic symbiosis. Read more →