Small Things Considered

Talmudic Question #186

In their classical experiments, Oswald Ave­ry, Colin Mac­Leod, and Mac­lyn McCarty showed that strep­to­coc­ci in a spe­ci­fic growth phase take up exo­genous DNA, result­ing in a trans­for­ma­tion of their phe­no­type... Read more →

Talmudic Question #185

Can you conceive of a virus that can divide by binary fission? Read more →

Talmudic Question #184

What will be found in the samples collected by Perseverance once they are brought to Earth and fully analyzed? 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 →

Talmudic Question #182

Difficult as it may be to predict which agent will cause the next pandemic, which *single* measure would you recommend should be taken now to mitigate its future effects? Read more →

Talmudic Question #181

Some authors have written describing single cells as "cog­ni­tive" or "agents with agen­das." Cog­ni­tion may not be far from con­scious­ness… . In what­ever sense you choose, could you ar­gue that bac­te­ria have con­scious­ness? Read more →

Talmudic Question #180

Why didn’t mitochondria keep a DnaA-dependent origin of replication? Read more →

Talmudic Question #179

There is talk that Vibrio natrigens may supplant Escherichia coli as the model system for many bacterial studies. Do you think that the day of such model systems may have passed and, if so why? Read more →

Talmudic Question #178

Many environmental bacteria appear to be ob­li­gate oli­go­trophs, that is they can only be cul­ti­va­ted on media con­tain­ing very low nu­trient con­cen­tra­tions. There are pro­bab­ly many rea­sons for this.  Which one do you favor and why? Read more →

Talmudic Question #177

A twist on Schrödinger’s Cat… In­stead of ra­dio­iso­tope, a Gei­ger coun­ter, a poi­son and a cat, in­side a sealed box with a light and kept at am­bient tem­pe­ra­ture and at­mo­sphe­ric pres­sure, you place a Wi­no­grad­sky co­lumn and a sealed vial... Read more →