Small Things Considered

Book Review: The Genesis Quest

by Janie | The Genesis Quest is a tour-de-force recount of the eclectic effort to understand the origins of life on Earth, authored by science writer Michael Marshall. Here is a tale that spans from prebiotic chemistry to protocells, interlaced with tales of the idiosyncrasies of the scientists involved... Read more →

Microcosm: The Current Issue

by Elio and Roberto | The current issue of Microcosm (Fall 2020) is notable for its focus on vaccines, hence this special mention. Read more →

The Bacterial Symbionts of the Giant Tube Worms Are Varied In Shape and Function

by Elio | Some thirty years ago it was my good fortune to sit in an air­plane next to the famed marine micro­biologist, the late Holger Jannasch, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He shared with me stories of his deep-sea explor­ations, especially his voyages in the sub­mersible Alvin. These included visits to the recently discovered deep sea hydro­thermal vents... Read more →

Fine Reading. Proximate and ultimate causes of the bactericidal action of antibiotics

by Elio | In a Perspective piece in Nature Reviews Microbiology, Fernando Baquero of the Ramon y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid and Bruce R. Levin of the Antibiotic Resistance Canter at Emory University present a most thoughtful essay on the ways antibiotics kill bacteria (or don't). To explain the curious title and what's behind it, let me quote their introductory paragraph: Read more →

TWiM 234: Corkscrewing through snot

On This Week in Microbiology: Salmonella colonization of three-dimensional miniature intestinal organs, and identification of a circadian clock in a non-photosynthetic prokaryote. Read more →

Non-Photosynthetic Bacteria Also Have a Circadian Rhythm

by Elio | The very first entry in this blog, in December 2006, was about the amazing fact that some photosynthetic cyanobacteria have a circadian rhythm. I entitled it "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing." Read more →

Talmudic Question #183

Can you think of any features of a viral genome that might allow you to tell if it is capable of causing a pandemic? Read more →

Interplanetary Biomining

by Elio | We are not short of evidence that microbes can survive in space for extensive times. A favored way to find out is to carry out often multinational studies by placing sample organisms on the surface of the International Space Station. Read more →

Microbiology for All Ages: More Small Friends Considered

by Daniel | The purpose of this blog is "to share our appreciation for the width and depth of the microbial activities on this planet." Isn’t it fantastic when that sense of microbiological wonder can also be shared with a child? Read more →

Unmasking an Ancient Scourge

by Ornob Alam | Nothing takes you back in time quite like DNA, not ancient documents, not cherished tales, not ageless chronicles. Anyone studying human history today must take stock of the remarkable information recorded in DNA. Major advances in DNA sequencing and its extraction from ancient bones and teeth now provide unprecedented windows into major events in human history... Read more →