Small Things Considered

Psilocybin (A Snippet)

by Elio | I suppose that among the readers of this blog interest in the biology and biochemistry of psilocybin may outweigh that in its recreational value (but I am not taking bets). Anyhow, there is something to report on its biosynthesis and, less so, on what's in it for the mushroom that makes it Read more →

The Secrets of Ancient Beer

by Gillian Belk
With the Octoktoberfest themed beers flowing all season, it seemed only appropriate to have a post about the marvels of this delightful frothy beverage Read more →

Talmudic Question #158

The genie has returned yet again. (He al­ready vi­si­ted once back in 2007.) On a moon­lit night, you walk on the beach, stub your toe against a bottle, which con­ven­ient­ly rolls against a rock and shat­ters. A ge­nie emer­ges, eager to grant you one wish. You ask for a mi­cro­bio­lo­gi­cal la­bo­ra­to­ry. The ge­nie grants you that, and tells you that you... Read more →

Shining a light on Vibrio DNA uptake

by Rachel Diner | Vibrio cholerae  is "kind of a big deal" in the bac­te­ri­al world and a po­pu­lar to­pic here on STC. Be­yond be­ing the cau­sa­ti­ve agent for the dis­ease cho­le­ra, it's a mo­del bac­te­ri­um for stu­dy­ing ho­ri­zon­tal gene trans­fer and in­ter­bac­te­ri­al com­pe­ti­tion. A re­cent stu­dy in Na­tu­re Mi­cro­bio­lo­gy sheds new light (li­te­ral­ly) on how this hap­pens. Read more →

Vaccines and the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance

by Roberto | For the vast majority of the natural history of Homo sa­piens, some 200,000 years, the average life expectancy at birth has been around 30 years. What I find most amazing is that as recently as 1900 the world average human life expectancy at birth had remained unchanged. Read more →

On your marks, get set, go!

by Christoph | When did you first hear about the "ge­ne­tic code" ? In high school ? Or in col­lege, in an un­der­gra­du­ate course in mo­le­cu­lar bio­lo­gy and/or ge­ne­tics ? In either case you were cer­tain­ly shown the fa­mous co­don table that spe­ci­fies which of the 64 pos­sible trip­lets in mes­sen­ger RNA (mRNA) are trans­la­ted in­to one of the 20 ca­no­ni­cal... Read more →

Mono Lake (a Snippet)

by Elio | Travel down the eastern slope of California's Sierra Nevada and you will run into a number of breathtaking sights. Ranking high among them is Mono Lake, a large shallow lake that sports a collection of strange limestone columns. Protruding some 30 feet above the water surface, these structures, known as chimneys, consist of calcium carbonate... Read more →

How Bacteria on our Skin Might Prevent Skin Cancer

by Jammal Abu-khazneh and Chih-Kai Yang | The skin is the largest organ in the human body and is home to diverse microbial communities. While this may be unsettling for some germophobes, recent work has uncovered potential health benefits from bacteria that are part of our normal skin microbiomes. Read more →

From the Classroom

Dr. Melanie Armstrong, of Western Colorado University, got a message, which reminded us of our Talmudic Questions... Read more →

The Truth Is In The Outcome

by Elio | Coprolites - fossil feces - are nothing short of a marvel. A message from the past, they divulge important information about what their makers lived on as well as on how they lived Read more →