Small Things Considered

Teachers Corner: Chalks Talks vs PowerPoints

by Elio | Two years ago today, Christopher Waters from Michigan State University posted a preprint in bioRxiv entitled "Rock the Chalk: A five-year comparative analysis of a large microbiology lecture course reveals improved outcomes of chalk-talk compared to PowerPoint." It is a good read... Read more →

Cell Division in Bacteria: Themes & Variations

by Elio | From bacteria on up, all the way to the cells of our bo­dies, most cells di­vide by bi­na­ry fis­sion. That is, the pro­cess ini­tiat­es at mid­cell, usu­al­ly by con­strict­ion, and pro­ceeds un­til the two re­sult­ant daugh­ter cells be­come se­pa­rat­ed. Most of­ten, these two sis­ter cells are iden­ti­cal in size and shape. Boring. En­ter Ba­cil­lus sub­tilis... Read more →

Talmudic Question #187

by Raymond Cox
Why does Brevibacterium grow so slowly? Read more →

The Riddle of Life

by Daniel | Book Review: How Molecular Forces and Rotating Planets Create Life: The Emergence and Evolution of Prokaryotic Cells by Jan Spitzer   Read more →

TWiM 241: What Does Flu Do to Your Poo?

How Vibrio biofilms are dispersed by polyamine signals, and the induction of inappetence by respiratory virus infection which causes alteration of the gut microbiome. Read more →

Names, New and Strange – A Snippet

by Elio
Are you baffled by the advent of so many new species of bacteria, most carrying unusual names? Let me throw a few at you: Adlercreutzia equolifaciens subsp. celatus, Bacillus velezensis, Butti­auxella agrestis, Cupriavidus basilensis, Curtobacterium... Read more →

Color is in the Eye of the Bacteria-Beholder

by Janie | Pigmentation is a straightforward colora­tion: the color is the same from every viewing angle. In contrast, structural col­oration is in the eye of the beholder: the colors are dependent on the viewing angle... Read more →

Of Terms in Biology: The Biological Pump

by Roberto | Quick, without much think­ing, what image came to mind when you read "bio­lo­gi­cal pump" in to­day's title? If you are like me, pre­dis­posed to think in cel­lu­lar and mo­le­cu­lar terms, you might have thought of an in­te­gral mem­brane pro­tein that pumps mo­le­cules in­to or out the cell. Per­haps any of... Read more →

Prokaryotic Organelles. Yes, There Are Such Things.

by Elio | One of the venerable distinctions between eukaryotes and prokaryotes used to be that prokaryotes do not have organelles. This distinction has now gone by the wayside because bacteria and archaea have been shown to possess protein bound structures that can appropriately be called organelles. Read more →

Pictures Considered #52 : Streptomyces stacks Z-rings...

by Christoph | Streptomyces stacks Z-rings... into lad­ders in­side its aeri­al/spo­ro­gen­ic hy­phae. If this sen­tence strikes you as a bar­rage of jar­gon or just gib­ber­ish, don't des­pair, help is coming. First, en­joy the "light show" in the 20‑se­cond video clip on the right side. It runs in loop, so you can fol­low more than... Read more →