Small Things Considered

Talmudic Question #174

Imagine that the great majority of the microbes on Earth could be cultivated on laboratory media. How do you suggest that, in practice, we handle their humongous number? Read more →

Talmudic Question #173

Can you envisage a Winogradsky column consisting of only Gram-negative bacteria (or just Gram-positives, for that matter)? Read more →

Talmudic Question #172

Can you think of a vertebrate other than ruminants that CANNOT be reared under germ-free conditions? Read more →

Talmudic Question #171

by Ellie Arrington
Why are Gammaproteobacteria the weeds of microbial communities? Read more →

Talmudic Question #170

Why is RNA replication limited to the viruses and viroids? Read more →

Talmudic Question #169

Lactose is rarely found in Nature except for mammalian milk. How come? Read more →

Talmudic Question #168

Are there classes of genes that cannot be productively transmitted by phages (that is, cannot be transduced)?
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Talmudic Question #167

What is a microbe? (Defend your definition.)
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Talmudic Question #166

Why haven’t eukaryotes developed a CRISPR system? (the immune system doesn’t count) Read more →

Talmudic Question #165

Describe the properties of a yet-to-arise new DOMAIN of life. Read more →