Small Things Considered

On the Source of the Black Death

by Roberto  
Yersinia pestis. How immediate our reaction can be to the species name of this bacterium, making us conjure up images of pestilence. As its discoverer, Alexander Yersin, wrote in 1894 of an outbreak of bubonic plague in Hong Kong, this is the "bacille de la peste." (Working independently, Kitasato Shibasaburo also characterized the plague bacterium at nearly the exact same time.) Read more →

Fine Reading: The Life and Times of Paul Buchner

by Roberto  
In preparing our recent post on ectosymbionts, I discovered Jan Sapp's 2002 perspective: "Paul Buchner (1886 –1978) and hereditary symbiosis in insects." I suspect that many STC readers will immediately recognize the name of Paul Buchner, after whom Paul Baumann named the now well-known aphid endosymbiont Buchnera. But I also suspect most will not know too much about Buchner's seminal contributions... Read more →

It Takes tRNAs to Tango: How Phages Outsmart Their Hosts

by Rafael Pinilla-Redondo  
Have you ever wondered what goes on inside a bacterium when it's attacked by a phage? Imagine an epic battle between two armies, like in "The Lord of the Rings" but seen through a microscope. On the one hand, valiant phages try to assault, replicate, and spread to neighboring cells; and on the other, host defenses strive to thwart and contain the tiny invaders. Read more →

Infectious Enthusiasm for Preserving Our Microbes

by Mechas and Roberto  
When it comes to microbes, the public still perceives them largely as the cause of infections. This worldview goes back to the latter half of the nineteenth century with the seminal findings of Pasteur and Koch. During the past few decades this predominant view changed towards a recognition of microbes' largely beneficial roles, but the pandemic appears to have slowed down this learning process. Read more →

Safeguarding Beetle Development

by Mechas and Roberto  
This is the story of how pursuing a century-old observation led to the recent discovery the chemical ecology involved in protecting a beetle from fungal infection during larval molting. It shall come as no surprise that we would be thrilled by such a story; throughout the lifetime of the blog, we've had posts on insect-microbe symbioses... Read more →

Molecular Fossils of Microbial Interactions

by Einat Segev  
Microbes have inhabited our planet for many millions of years. While thriving and dying in almost every niche on Earth, microbes leave behind relics, and some of these relics remain preserved in the geological record. Many cell components are rapidly degraded and do not persist but remains that do are like archives of ancient microbial life. Read more →

A New Look and Other Changes

by Roberto  
What were you doing seventeen years ago, in 2006? I have a tough time recalling my own actions then, but I sure can tell you what Elio did that year. With his energy, enthusiasm, and relentless itch for writing (along with support from ASM, namely Chris Condayan) he gave birth to this blog. Read more →

Christopher T. Walsh (1944–2023)

by Roberto  
Last week, my enthusiastic feelings for the beginning of the new year were greatly dampened when I received the news of Chris Walsh's untimely death, the consequence of a fall. Many of us fortunate enough to have known and interacted with him for many years are still processing... Read more →

The Who-Ate-Whom of Terms in Biology: Virovory

by Christoph  
Like with the cus­to­ma­ry New Year's Eve fire­works, eve­ry year we bio­lo­gists are blessed with hi­ther­to un­known or lar­ge­ly un­com­mon sci­en­ti­fic terms. Some stick, others blaze away like said fire­works. How would you guess the term "vi­ro­vo­ry," which was ad­ded to Wi­ki­pe­dia on 29 Decem­ber 2022, will fare? Read more →

Winter Vacation

We take advantage of this being the season for re­joic­ing, and em­bark on a three-week win­ter vaca­tion. When we re­turn in 2023, on Ja­nua­ry 16th, we will en­ter the 17th year of Small Things Con­sider­ed. Read more →