Small Things Considered

Bringing the Microbial World into our Natural History Museums

by Scott Chimileski
Have you ever visited a natural history museum and looked for microbe exhibits? If you have, I’d bet you didn’t find any. In my own searches, I usually see microbes represented only by some species names written on a tree of life, or by a minor section of another exhibit. When I first realized that microbial life is a small fraction of content on display, I was shocked... Read more →

Behind the Science

by Elio
Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a program called "People Behind the Science." This is a series of interviews conducted by Marie McNeely, a neuroscientist who hosts this remarkable endeavor. The program aims to provide a candid look at the lives of scientists across a variety of fields and to showcase the human side of science. Marie asks a bunch of probing questions that reveal more than "the person in the white lab coat." Read more →

The microbial nature of humans

by Maureen O'Malley
Quite a lot has been written about human microbiome research and how it changes older ideas about human autonomy, individuality and identity. Most of these discussions focus on how the biological basis for our 'self' is in fact a consortium of different lineages of cells, and that the majority of these cells are microbial. Read more →

The ASM President Speaks: "Microbes Touch Everything"

By Tim Donohue | As I wheeled my bag away from the Convention Center in New Orleans after the 115th General Meeting, I noticed its ASM luggage tag, which states "Microbes Touch Everything". This simple line is a perfect summary of the importance of the microbial sciences and the core mission of ASM to promote and advance this field. Read more →

It’s Funnier When You’re Right

by Elio
The mystery of alcoholic fermentations was uncovered in the first half of the 19th century by Cagniard-Latour (1837) in France, and Schwann (1837) and Kützing (1837) in Germany, based on microscopic studies but not without controversy. The great German organic chemist Justus Liebig did not like the idea that alcoholic… Read more →

The Bacterial Chromosome: A Physical Biologist's Apology. A Perspective.

by Suckjoon Jun
I entered the bacterial chromosome field in 2004 as a fresh Ph.D. trained in theoretical physics. Ten years is not long enough for one to gain the depth and breadth of a scientific discipline of long history, certainly not for an early career scientist to write an essay of the... Read more →

Good Old Days #2

by R.G. E. Murray
There is much that should be remembered about those days of intensive exploratory work and much of it using very simple methods and instruments. There was a remarkable amount of sharing of current work and results without much concern for primacy, which was automatically recognized. Communication was often by hand… Read more →

Recalling the Good in the Good Old Days

by Elio
In its early days, ca. 1945-1965, molecular biology was a particularly collegial undertaking, characterized by free sharing of research data and a relative lack of egotistical behavior. The reason for this marvel may well have been that there was so much to discover – so many low hanging fruits – that there… Read more →

Finally, Farewell to "Stamp Collecting"...

by Christoph Weigel
The perspective paper by Margaret McFall-Ngai and colleagues was recently featured by Elio in this blog, strongly emphasizing its Chicxulub-like impact on microbiology. Here I offer a postscript, a few loosely connected thoughts from a historical perspective about its impact on biology and life sciences in general… Read more →

Whose Planet Is It Anyway?

by Elio
This is the title my friend Fred Neidhardt recently used for a talk, and a good question it is. I suppose that most microbiologists and the readers of this blog would split the answer down the middle, the biomass of this planet and the chemical transactions therein being about half… Read more →