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 →

Sydney Brenner (1927–2019)

by Roberto and Elio | On April 5th, the eminent biologist Sydney Bren­ner died aged 92. Du­ring his de­ca­des long scien­ti­fic car­eer, he made a last­ing im­pact on mo­le­cu­lar bio­lo­gy by in­tro­du­cing C. ele­gans, a ti­ny ne­ma­to­de, as mo­del or­gan­ism. But al­ready a couple of years ear­lier, in 1961, he, Fran­cis Crick, and their col­la­bor­a­tors were... Read more →

My Two Years in Copenhagen…

by Elio | My two years in Copenhagen were most li­ke­ly the hap­piest of my li­fe. My then wife and I were there in 1956 to 1958, while on a post­doc­to­ral fel­low­ship in Ole Maaløe's la­bo­ra­to­ry. We had de­ci­ded on this for se­ve­ral rea­sons. In the de­cades af­ter World War II, young Ame­ri­cans where drawn to labs in Eu­ro­pe, part­ly be­cause... Read more →

The Vicissitudes of a Talmudic Question

by Elio | When we try to construct a Talmudic Question, we are con­cerned with the accuracy of the premise and ensuring that an answer has not been previously provided. We were toying with this one: “Bac­terial endosymbionts of insects have reduced genomes but, best we know, they have not exported some of their genes to the host cell nu­cleus (as organelles have)... 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 →

Nano Pétanques – A Snippet

by Christoph | "The power of evolution is revealed through the di­ver­si­ty of life." Aha! It was so­lemn­ly de­clar­ed by the No­bel Prize com­mit­tee in their sta­te­ment an­nounc­ing last year's che­mis­try priz­es for "the di­rect­ed evo­lu­tion of en­zymes [and] phage dis­play of pep­tides and anti­bodies". Roy­al aca­de­mies – na­tio­nal or other aca­de­mies like­wise – tend to add luster... Read more →

The Fires of Saint Anthony – A Snippet

by Roberto
Just recently, after giving a very general public lecture on microbes, the discussion went – not surprisingly – in the direction of humans and our relationships to our microbiota. Read more →

Dental Care for Your Pet: For Their Health and Yours

by Meaghan O’Neill | Ever since the domestication of wolves, humans have probably remarked upon the particularly bad breath that our dog companions frequently display. Medieval illuminated bestiaries speculated that the strong odor from a wolf’s mouth could betray his presence to prey – like a flock of sheep – causing the wolf to its make approach from downwind. Read more →

Winter Vacation and the New STC Logo

by Team STC | We take advantage of this being the season for rejoicing, whoo-hoo!, and take our annual winter two week vacation. When we return in 2019, we will enter the 13th year of Small Things Considered. And we do so for the first time with our own logo! Read more →

It Comes With The Terroir

by Roberto | There is something very special about wine, at least for my taste. I do, however, admit to the possibility that many of our readers will wonder what's the big deal about the beverage, it's just fermented grape juice after all. Read more →