In the Company of Microbes
Ten Years of Small Things Considered
ASM
1. Auflage Mai 2016
320 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
A look at the amazing, groovy world of microbes
With more than 1,000 posts and 2 million views, the esteemed blog Small Things Considered has been sparking the imagination of microbiologists for an entire decade. Throughout the years, Elio Schaechter and his team of dedicated bloggers have shared exciting, unexpected, and unusual stories from the microbial world.
In the Company of Microbes is a carefully selected treasure chest of wise, amusing, and even profound statements about the ubiquity and relevance of the microbial world. Schaechter, past ASM Presidents, and distinguished microbiologists from around the globe reflect on personal, sometimes historic interactions with microbes and unexpected discoveries, each essay conveying the excitement and sense of surprise that microbiology holds for them. This is the reason that Small Things Considered is a scientific and social media phenomenon that has impacted scientists at every stage of their careers and shared the magical of microbes with world.
Join Schaechter in discovering a never-ending pageant of astounding variations on the theme of microbial life. Enjoy!
Introduction xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
What Do We Mean by a Talmudic Question? xvi
Part 1: The View from Here
1 Of Ancient Curses, Microbes, and the ASM 3
Bonnie L. Bassler
2 On the Evolution of the Genetic Code 6
Charles Yanofsky
3 Microbes Touch Everything 8
Tim Donohue
4 Getting a Handle on Cell Organization 11
Franklin M. Harold
5 The Age of Imaging 16
Elio
6 Bacillus subtilis: Wild and Tame 19
Richard Losick
7 The Tyranny of Phylogeny: An Exhortation 22
Elio
8 Virus in the Room 24
Welkin Johnson
9 Feynman Said "Just Look at the Thing!" 27
Jan Spitzer
10 Self-Assembly For Me 34
Elio
11 On the Definition of Prokaryotes 37
Nanne Nanninga
12 The Microbial Nature of Humans 42
Maureen O'Malley
13 Good Writing Beats Bad Writing, Most Any Day 47
Elio
14 Finally, Farewell to "Stamp Collecting" 52
Christoph Weigel
Part 2: Accounts of the Past
15 Esther Lederberg: Pioneer of Bacterial Genetics 59
Mercé Piqueras
16 How Proteomics Got Started 66
Fred Neidhardt
17 Did van Leeuwenhoek Observe Yeast Cells in 1680? 72
Nanne Nanninga
18 The Louse and the Vaccine 76
Elio
19 The Ten-Minute Leeuwenhoek Microscope 80
Patrick Keeling
20 Microbiology in the Andes: Ancient and Unexpected 84
Elio
21 Dr. Rous's Prize-Winning Chicken 87
Welkin Johnson
22 The Two Quantitative Steps in the Biology Growth Curve 90
Elio
23 A Tale of Centenarians 93
Claudio Schazzocchio
24 A Failed Experiment 99
Elio
25 "Microbe Hunters" by Paul DeKruif: A Major Force in Microbiological History 104
Elio
26 Fecal Transplants in the "Good Old Days" 106
Stanley Falkow
27 Requiem for a Machine 110
Elio
28 Mad Dogs and Microbiologists 113
William C. Summers
29 Joshua Lederberg and the "Cellularity" of Bacteria 118
Elio
Part 3: Small Wonders
30 Where Art Thou, O Nucleoid? 123
Conrad Woldringh
31 Teaching E. coli to Endocytose 126
Elio
32 The Awesomest Thing in Biology 130
Elio
33 Let's Not Forget Acetabularia 134
Elio
34 The Fastest Flights in Nature 139
Elio
35 Fungal Alchemy: Using Radiation as a Source of Energy 141
Elio
36 Arms and the Fungus 143
Elio
37 Bacterial Hopanoids: The Lipids That Last Forever 146
Elio
38 A Bacterium Learns Long Division 150
Nanne Nanninga
39 Commuting to Work 153
Elio
Part 4: On Being a Microbiologist
40 Directed Science, Curiosity-Driven Science, and Striking the Balanc 159
Jeff F. Miller
41 The Gender Bias of Science Faculty 163
Vincent Racaniello
42 The Excitement of Clinical Microbiology 166
Elio
43 The Bacterial Chromosome: A Physical Biologist's Apology. A Perspective 171
Suckjoon Jun
44 Whose Planet is It Anyway? 177
Elio
45 If Microbes Could Tweet 181
Daniel P. Haeusser
46 State Microbes 183
Elio
47 Recalling the Good in the Good Old Days 187
Elio
48 The Attendee's Guide to Scientific Meetings 189
Julian Davies
Part 5: Personal Notes
49 The Encyclopedia and I 195
Elio
50 The Guild 198
Elio
51 The Magasanik Paradox 200
Elio
Part 6: The Ways of Microbes
52 The Parvome 205
Julian Davies
53 The World is Pleiotropic 208
Elio
54 Constructing a Synthetic Mycoplasma 211
Shmuel Razin
55 By Chance and Necessity:The Role of the Cytoskeleton in the Genesis of Eukaryotes 214
Daniel P. Haeusser
56 The Gram Stain: Its Persistence and Its Quirks 221
Elio
57 On the Continuity of Biological Membranes 226
Franklin M. Harold
58 Energetics of the Eukaryotic Edge 223
Franklin M. Harold
59 The Road to Microbial Endocrinology 238
Mark Lyte
60 Begetting the Eukarya: An Unexpected Light 244
Franklin M. Harold
61 The Higgs Boson and Biology 253
Elio
62 The Power of Fungal Genetics: Cassava for Food Security and Sustainability in Colombia 257
Chris Condaya, Peter Geoghan
63 Why is It So Hard to Make an HIV Vaccine? 259
John Coffin
64 Measuring Up 263
Jamie Henzy
Part 7: Teaching Things
65 On Teaching 267
Stanley Falkow
66 Hello Again, Metabolism! 271
Amy Cheng Vollmer
67 Why Medical Microbiology is Not Like Stamp Collecting 273
Elio
68 Where Mathematicians and Biologists Meet 278
Joe Mahaffy
69 Short Courses for Long-Term Learning 282
Phoebe Lostroh
70 Preaching to a Prokaryotic Choir 284
Mark Martin
71 "The Great Plate Count Anomaly" That is No More 288
Gemma Reguera
Talmudic Question #73 291
List of Contributors to Small Things Considered 292
