Small Things Considered

In and About Copenhagen

by Roberto | Not too many months ago Elio posted an engaging and very personal essay of his two years in Copenhagen. Those years spanned from 1956 to 1958, a mere 62 years ago, at a time when I was still in pre-school. While editing Elio's text, I was quite taken by his description of those days as "most likely the happiest of my life." Read more →

Discovering a Novel Algal-Fungal Symbiosis and a Humanized Journal

by Elio | Lichens are said to occupy an astounding 6% of the surface of Earth’s land mass, so pay attention. As you are well aware, lichens arise by the symbiotic interaction of fungi and algae (or sometimes cyanobacteria). And as you know, they consist of separate individuals of the two partners, each benefiting from the interaction. Read more →

Pictures Considered #47: Phages in the Gardens

by Roberto | A few weeks ago, I found myself aimlessly exploring the garden of the Palace of Holyroodhouse (Edinburgh, Scotland), which has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scots since the 16th century. Read more →

«let not Vanity ſeduce you...»

by Christoph | «let not Vanity ſeduce you to per­ſiſt in your Miſ­take». No, it's not a spel­ling mis­take that you see here. It's the 'long ſ', which was used in print well into the 18th cen­tu­ry. And also the ca­pi­ta­li­za­tion of nouns, un­usual to­day, was com­mon in 1743 when Hen­ry Ba­ker's trea­tise The Mi­cro­sco­pe Made Ea­sy was pub­lished... Read more →

Summer Vacation

by the STC team
We are taking our customary two week vacation. Do you think we deserve it ? Looking forward to seeing you again on July 8th ! Read more →

Good Readings

by Elio | Here are books that cry out to be read. I start out with a list that appeared in a website called Five Books under The best books on Microbes. Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: Colicins, Bacteriocins, Pyocins and Tailocins

by Roberto | This is the tale of the tail, of a phage. Years before Alexander Fleming's chance discovery of penicillin, many scientists were already interested in bacteriolytic activities. Bacteriophages played a big role in the early days of searches for bacterial killers. Read more →

A "Cultural" Renaissance

by Paul Carini | Sometimes, to move ahead, you must take a look at where you have been. Cul­tur­ing mi­cro­bes is a foun­da­tio­nal un­der­pin­ning of mi­cro­bio­lo­gy. Be­fore ge­nome se­quenc­ing, re­searchers spent count­less hours te­dious­ly de­duc­ing the nu­tri­tion­al re­quire­ments of bac­te­ri­al iso­la­tes and tin­ker­ing with me­dium for­mu­la­tions to en­ti­ce new mi­cro­bes in­to cul­ture. This art of cul­ti­va­tion took a back seat to the pow­er­ful mo­le­cu­lar tools of the last 25 years, and as a re­sult, ma­ny re­search­ers have for­got­ten the uti­li­ty of hav­ing a cul­ture in hand. This per­cept­ion is chang­ing, as there is clear­ly a re­newed in­ter­est in iso­la­ting mi­crobes from va­rious en­vi­ron­ments. Here, I sug­gest three focus areas to en­sure con­tin­ued growth and suc­cess of this "cul­tu­ral" re­nais­sance, in­clu­ding (i) set­ting clear cul­ti­va­tion goals, (ii) fund­ing ex­plo­ra­to­ry cul­ti­va­tion, and (iii) cul­tur­ing and stu­dy­ing un­usu­al or­gan­isms. "Un­cul­tur­able" is a frame of mind, not a state of micro­bio­lo­gy; it is time to dust off the bottle of yeast ex­tract. Read more →

Chinese Surnames in Science

by Elio | Names matter a great deal in science, as, ob­vi­ous­ly, they do in all hu­man en­dea­vors. To a sci­en­tist, the name of the au­thor – or the au­thors – of a pub­li­ca­tion is par­ti­cu­lar­ly co­gent since a sci­en­ti­fic dis­co­ve­ry is fre­quent­ly asso­cia­ted with the name or na­mes of the dis­co­ver­er (no­tab­ly, Avo­ga­dro's number, Hal­ley's co­met, Wat­son and Crick DNA struc­ture, etcetera). I should note... Read more →

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 →