Twain's story about a scientist who's turned into a "cholera germ" and sees the microbial world from a germ's-eye-view

I follow Cameron Thrash on social media as he regularly posts links to interesting microbial ecology papers.

An interaction system driven by both direct and indirect mechanisms

Alfred Drummond-Herdman’s extraordinary timelapses have been viewed by millions – and led him to identify new species

Widgets, Hallucinations, Vibe-coding, Oh My!

Microbiomes drive biogeochemical cycling across Earth's critical zones (soils, oceans, rivers, sediments, deep subsurface), yet our ability to translate genomic data into the ecologically and biogeoch...

AI in Biology/Microbial Ecology

~25% of world's human population contain latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis cells in lung granulomas

If I were given the challenge to design the curriculum for an introductory biology course, I would include a couple of lectures on Systems Thinking.

1,556 U.S. colleges and universities mapped on Institutional Resilience, Post-College Market Position, and AI Exposure.

Mechanicism, / machine mechanisms / causal mechanisms

Analysis of published papers on eight widely studied species suggests work on them is fading, but not everyone is worried

What is Coming and How Badly will it Hurt?

A complete guide to finding, reading, and evaluating scientific papers — and knowing what questions matter before you trust the findings.

40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.

It has become customary to conceptualize the living cell as an intricate piece of machinery, different to a man-made machine only in terms of its supe…

When innovating in microbial ecology, Think Like a Microbe™ …

Scientific Reports - Civet Robusta and natural Robusta coffee are different on key fatty acid methyl esters and total fat

Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid, copper for the craftsman, cunning at his trade, ‘Good’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall, ‘but iron — cold iron — is master of them all’.

Materials scientists warn that raw data and replication studies are needed to tackle the looming threat of near-undetectable AI fraud

How ‘Positive Microbiology’ is portrayed in commercial movies and its potential as a tool for education and engaging general audiences to counteract germaphobia. Image done with freepik.

I began with the idea I would write this great piece that illuminated the interface between microbial ecology and evolution, as one where Darwin’s concepts of evolution via natural selection could be ...

What are the limits for energy fluxes and macromolecule stability?

Under Trump, climate denial has given way to something even more dangerous: climate erasure.