In a deterministic, non-chaotic system, the initial state fixes the future completely, yet that future may be impossible to forecast from it. Using a cellular automaton of communicating cells, this st...

The ability to manipulate and control microbial presence in built environments is imperative to research and medicine. The lack of documented evidence relating Bunsen burner use and airborne contamination led us to conclude that this element of aseptic technique has until now been supported primarily by lore and tradition rather than experimental data. Given that laboratory open flame use has financial, temporal, and safety implications for research institutions across the globe, we sought to determine whether it is a worthwhile investment of resources. Ultimately, our data suggest that this practice is not evidence-based and that, except in a specific subset of circumstances, Bunsen burners can be removed from classroom and laboratory practice without compromising research integrity.

Antibiotic resistance can evolve through the combination of factors but the predictability of this is unclear. Here, the authors used high-throughput evolution experiments to reveal that antibiotic re...

npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - Predicting drug inactivation by changes in bacterial growth dynamics

An analysis of millions of scientific papers and patents reveals a ‘pivot penalty’ when researchers shift direction, with the impact of studies decreasing rapidly the further they move from their prev...

YouTube video by MicrobeTV

12 days. 12 livestreams. A bunch of new things, big and small.

Transposon insertion sequencing (Tn-seq) is a powerful me...

Constructing combinatorially complete species assemblages...

Full service online faculty recruitment and application m...

Little is known about the long-term effects of early-care...