Small Things Considered

Is Pseudomonas aeruginosa ubiquitous?

by Roberto
Going back several decades I tried to argue that, contrary to po­pular belief, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is not a ubiquitous bac­terium. This was based on our difficulties in obtaining strains from pristine environments, conversations with many colleagues de­scribing similar experiences, and... Read more →

Spetses "The New Microbiology" Summer School

by Roberto  
Participants of the Spet­ses Sum­mer School first tra­vel to Athens and then em­bark on a near­ly three-hour fer­ry ride across the Sa­ro­nic Gulf to reach Spet­ses. Con­se­quent­ly, al­most every­one is tired upon ar­rival. But no mat­ter how ex­haust­ed, every­one feels in­vi­go­rat­ed by the ma­gi­cal feel­ing of... Read more →

Summer Courses in Microbiology

by Roberto
These days in New Eng­land – spe­ci­fi­cal­ly in Cam­bridge, where I am now – the air is crisp as the tem­pe­ra­tures are be­gin­ning to drop and the leaves are al­ready dis­play­ing mag­ni­fi­cent col­ors. Fall is in full swing, and sum­mer is a me­mo­ry. But this past sum­mer, once again, left me with the de­light­ful me­mo­ry... Read more →

Pepe Casadesús (1951─2022)

by Roberto
If you ever visited the De­part­ment of Ge­net­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Se­vil­la, Spain, you most li­ke­ly met Jo­sep Ca­sa­de­sús; Pe­pe as he was uni­ver­sal­ly known. If you were so ve­ry for­tu­nate, I am sure you still have last­ing and won­der­ful me­mo­ries of that en­coun­ter. Doubt­less, you will re­mem­ber how he... Read more →

Primo Levi's periodic table, and when scientists write fiction

by Janie
There are lots of fantastic books that convey love of a science, depict the braided lines of logic and intuition and luck in experimentation, and depict scientists' lives both in and beyond the lab. Memoir, fiction, biography. Science as metaphor for life, these books will frequently allude to... Read more →

Nature's Drug Factories: Visualising the Invisible

by Munro Passmore
For ge­ne­ral au­dien­ces, science can of­ten seem im­pe­ne­trab­le to un­der­stand be­cause of its in­her­ent scale and com­plex­ity. This is par­ti­cu­lar­ly true in the field of na­tur­al pro­ducts – where we seek to un­der­stand the pro­ces­ses mi­cros­cop­ic or­gan­isms un­der­take to make mo­le­cules we la­ter use as... Read more →

Fine Reading: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

by Mechas Zambrano and Roberto
The earliest roots of science can be traced to an­cient times in which so-cal­led na­tu­ral phi­lo­so­phers at­temp­ted to ex­plain the world around them. How­ever, the word science, coined in the 14^th cen­tu­ry, and the con­cept of science as the pur­suit of knowledge... Read more →

Angela Restrepo – Living on Through Memory

by Mechas Zambrano
Today we can easily bring to mind the names of many women scientists who serve as inspiration and role models. But this was not always the case. Even in the mid-20^th century, women in science were few and far between, especially in developing nations... Read more →

Escherichia coli – Flagship Bacterium of Molecular Biology

by Roberto  
There is little doubt that Esche­ri­ch­ia coli is a fa­vo­ri­te of ours here at STC. E. coli fans from around the world seem to get a spe­cial thrill when we post any new de­vel­op­ment aris­ing from stu­dies on this as­ton­ish­ing mo­del bac­te­ri­um. We are so ta­ken by it that our co­ver­age has gone be­yond de­scrib­ing re­search. Pre­vious­ly on STC... Read more →

Doing Science in Memory of a Bygone Era

by Christopher Rensing  
In the spring of 1986, I started my studies at the Free University of Berlin. I was accompanied by two friends from Bremen in Northern Germany, Ingo Haar and Roland Beckmann. Roland later performed wonderful work elucidating structure and function of the ribosome. Read more →