Small Things Considered

A blog for sharing appreciation of the width and depth of microbes and microbial activities on this planet.

Small Things Considered
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Welcome to Small Things Considered (STC)! In this blog we share our excitement about unexpected and unusual stories of the microbial world. The "About" page describes who we are. But we do not just publish our own writing. We very much enjoy posting contributions from students, postdocs, and others. Don't think that we do this to avoid work, we spend a lot of time editing the material we receive. Do send us your comments, criticisms, submissions, ideas, or whatever else comes to you mind; we are very eager to hear from you. See the "Contact" tab for directions on how to reach us. Thank you for visiting and, before you go, consider taking a moment to "Subscribe."

Go FISHing to Image Bacterial Communities

by Davide Ciccarese  
Bacterial communities live in a small world where cells fill any available micron. Depending on their location and surrounding environment, they can readily respond to changes by gearing up their gene repertoire to insure their position in a densely packed biofilm. To be able to visualize this... Read more →

Posted on August 28, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Ecology, Methodology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talmudic Question #206

by Roberto  
Two recent events prompt me to post this (double) Talmudic Question(s). First, I had a lot of thoughts inspired by Christoph's Monday post on stop codons being recognized by charged tRNAs in a trypanosomatid: "Stops making sense." How bizarre can non-canonical codes get? Second, I was reading posts from the past. Read more →

Posted on August 24, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Talmudic Questions | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stops Making Sense

by Christoph  
One of the most con­vinc­ing ar­guments for a com­mon ori­gin of all known life forms on this pla­net is that they all use the same ge­net­ic code. In my un­der­stand­ing, the ar­gu­ment is strength­en­ed, per­haps some­what coun­te‑­in­tuiti­ve­ly, by the nu­mer­ous find­ings that and how ma­ny life forms mo­di­fy the ca­no­ni­cal ge­net­ic code in ways that suit them... Read more →

Posted on August 21, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Physiology & Genetics, Protists | Permalink | Comments (0)

Updating Horizontal Gene Transfer

by Mechas and Roberto  
We recently prepared a lecture that included a brief discussion of bacterial evolution. Of course, we covered horizontal gene transfer (HGT), which we consider a key pillar in the evolutionary process. We dutifully began our presentation by listing, perforce: transformation, conjugation, and transduction. Read more →

Posted on August 17, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Evolution, Teachers Corner | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finding the actual needle in a virtual haystack

by Christoph  
...by glo­bal se­quenc­ing of en­vi­ron­men­tal DNA (eDNA) col­lect­ed from a sam­pling site and its ta­xo­nom­ic clas­si­fi­ca­tion and quan­ti­fi­ca­tion by bio­in­for­matics. When an­a­lyz­ing such vo­lu­min­ous da­ta­sets, ope­ra­tion­al ta­xo­nom­ic units (OTUs) often pop up that cor­res­pond to known ta­xa/spe­cies never found at the samp­ling site − the to­pic that brought you here − in ad­di­tion to...  Read more →

Posted on August 14, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Ecology | Permalink | Comments (0)

AvL, Taste, and the Discovery of Bacteria

by Roberto  
Before approaching matters of taste, I'll explain AvL. To many of our readers, the meaning of the acronym will be immediately apparent. But to others, perhaps those newer to microbiology, it may have no meaning at all. AvL is short for Antonie van Leeuwenhoek... Read more →

Posted on August 10, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends, Teachers Corner | Permalink | Comments (0)

TWiM 291: Biogeography of tectonics and teeth


TWiM explains how photoferrotrophic bacteria initiated plate tectonics over 2500 million years ago, and how two bacteria work together to cause childhood tooth decay. Read more →

Posted on August 10, 2023 at 01:29 AM in This Week in Microbiology | Permalink | Comments (0)

A miniature piñata

by Christoph  
Can you imagine a chil­dren's par­ty in Me­xi­co with­out a piñata as the main at­trac­tion? One of the kids hits the sus­pend­ed piñata with a stick un­til it bursts and the en­tire con­tents, usu­al­ly sweets, splat­ters on­to those stand­ing around wait­ing ex­pec­tant­ly. Micro­bio­lo­gists sometimes throw a party, too, though... Read more →

Posted on August 07, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Physiology & Genetics, Symbioses | Permalink | Comments (0)

Protein Synthesis – A Molecular Happening

by Roberto  
More than fifty years ago, towards the end of Spring term in May 1971, university campuses across the U.S. were rife with protests over the Vietnam war. Students skipped classes and left labs to participate in marches and sit-ins. In addition, the memory of Woodstock (August 1969) was still fresh in everyone's mind. Read more →

Posted on August 03, 2023 at 01:30 AM in Odds & Ends, Teachers Corner | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Post-Human Biosphere

by Roberto  
Only very rarely have I had the experience of serendipitously running into an article that is entertaining, hugely informative, and shocking all at once. It happened last week and I feel utterly compelled to provide brief comments interspersed among quotes from sections that I found particularly striking and thought provoking. Read more →

Posted on July 31, 2023 at 02:30 AM in Ecology, Odds & Ends, Teachers Corner | Permalink | Comments (0)

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