Small Things Considered

Sensing Blue Light: From Bacteria to Birds

by Mechas  
That many birds migrate over long distances is a well-known fact. But reading the book "World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds" by Scott Weidensaul proved to be a true eye-opener. I also learned a fact that really stuck with me. Read more →

A two-part resurrection tale (2|2)

by Christoph  
In continuation of the first part of the tale: what is the "re­sur­rec­tion" in the title about? A bit of nos­tal­gia, as I will "re­sur­rect" a sto­ry that is based on re­search from ~30 years ago (and to­day main­ly known by de­di­cat­ed plas­mid spe­cial­ists, if at all). A simple but vex­ing quest­ion bothered... Read more →

A two-part resurrection tale (1|2)

by Christoph  
Besides a resurrection tale that I'll re­late to in the se­cond part, this post will be about an­ti-de­fense sys­tems of plas­mids as an in­trin­sic part of the seem­ing­ly end­less arms race bet­ween con­ju­ga­tive ele­ments and their hosts. Still, I am not in­clined to act as war cor­res­pon­dent, and cer­tain­ly not at a time... Read more →

Talmudic Question #203

What sensory information allows you to recognize/identify microbial activities in their natural settings? Read more →

On the end of a leash

by Vivienne Baillie Gerritsen  
It has been a long time since I saw a plug hanging from the side of a bathtub. Remember the small triangular ring the chain dangled from, and the actual plug at the other end – usually a piece of black and slimy rubber that fitted perfectly into the plug hole. As a child, the perfection of the fit used to fascinate me and... Read more →

A Whiff of Taxonomy – Baudoinia compniacensis

by Roberto  
Several of our past posts described volatile organic compounds of microbial origin that influence our behavior. Acetates from wine, geosmin from soil. Not only are they enjoyable in the moment, such scents often elicit memories. I now offer the opposite perspective, a microbe whose ecology is influenced by a volatile organic compound of human origin. Baudoinia compniacensis, enter center stage. Read more →

An Eau de Microbe for Every Memory

by Janie  
It is terpenes like geosmin and many other molecules of microbial make that imbue so much of the world with scents. Commercial perfumes, too, are principally scented by terpenes and their derivatives and other molecules that are aromatic (aromatic both in the sense of... Read more →

An Illustrated Tree

by Roberto  
From the fun­da­men­tal con­cepts of bio­lo­gy, the fact that all or­gan­isms now alive share a com­mon an­ces­tor (LUCA) ranks as one of my fa­vo­rites. When I pause to con­si­der that, des­pite four bil­lion years of evo­lu­tion and di­ver­gence, my ri­bo­so­mal RNA shares some stret­ches of se­quence iden­ti­ty with all other au­to­no­mous or­gan­isms, I still get goose bumps... Read more →

Putrescence and Poetry

by Corrado Nai  
Flickering stars filigree the cosmic void. A green, incandescent planet bursts on the screen. We didn't know we were watching a science fiction movie. Drumrolls climax into the next frame. Suddenly, fiction is stripped away, and in a heartbeat we are thrown into the heart of science and culture. We are not staring at the infinitely large but observing the minuscule at work. Read more →

The Atlas of Cell Structure

by Roberto  
Our knowledge of the structure of microbial cells just keeps getting better as the resolution of imaging techniques continues to increase. A key player in this rapidly evolving technological field is cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) which, aided by powerful computational tools, allows for the generation of three-dimensional images of whole microbial cells... Read more →