recommended listening 👂👂👂

Winter Vacation We take advantage of this being the season for re­joic­ing, and embark on a long winter vaca­tion. When we return in 2026, on January 26, we will enter the 20th year of Small Things Considered.

Mosses love to decorate with slime molds. Northwest Territories, Canada. #slime #fungifriends #myxo #moss #bryophyte #botany

fans of two component systems (TCS) take note 👇 #MicroSky

unbedingt lesen! 👇(don't wait until epiphany)

#MicroSky ...and #PhageSky. brian 😀

in 2013, Elio was so fascinated by the 'heterologous multicellularity' of 𝘊𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘮 that he chose a cross-section to celebrate STC's 10th anniversary 🙂 👉 smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2... #MicroSky

cellwall·abys & pneumo fans take note 👇 #MicroSky

all fans of 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘹 take note 👇(including @nikobiota.bsky.social, @nicoledubilier.bsky.social, @grubervodicka.bsky.social et al.) super cute video by charlotte brannon and great 🧵from manu prakash's lab #MicroSky

«Aeonophiles show us that life has more creative ways of producing entropy than we thought possible» —Karen G Lloyd how fitting that the Aeonophiles are currently being featured in Aeon magazine 😊 aeon.co/essays/the-d... #MicrosSky

From Matters Microbial 118: Biofilms everywhere! Dr Matthew Fields joins host @markowenmartin.bsky.social to discuss ubiquitous microbial biofilms

We stand on the shoulders of giants - in science and humanity. youtu.be/DsvBKMkZgaA?...

translationists take note 👇 #RNASky intergenic regions (IGs) are tricky! 1st example I know of is from 1982: doi.org/10.1128/jb.1... 𝗿-𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗦4 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 α 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗘. 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗶. here 👇 the IG "behaves" like a sRNA-regulated 5' UTR

Retrospective, July to December 2025 In keeping with tradition, here is the list of our posts from the last half year.

replicationists & recombinatics take note 👇 cells deal with transcription-replication collisions (TRCs) much more professionally and efficiently than the best bridge engineers. OK, they've had more time to practice... thx, zeynep for pointing this out 🙏 #MicroSky

have you ever heard of "bacterial heterologous multicellularity" ? meet 𝘊𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘮, once thought to be one species, but it's actually two... #MicroSky #SymbioSky (from the STC archive)

such a great news for science in europe 👏

what a beautiful Caulo bunch by cécile berne & yves brun 👏👏👏 𝗯𝘂𝘁 be careful not to touch your screen! Caulo's holdfast 'adhésif' might be capable of spooky interaction at a distance 😮 #MicroSky

explorer phenotype of 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘺𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘻𝘶𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘦 anybody? here you go! 👇 + learn about the intricacies of the CutRS and CssRS two-component systems. don't wait! #MicroSky

Are you very busy but still want to learn what Aphelids are and why they are important to understand the evolution of Fungi? Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

linguists take note 👇 apart from a few oddities, the similarities and differences between US and UK english correspond quite well to those in sporulation in 𝘉. 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘴 and 𝘉. 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘴. #MicroSky

His science exquisitely uncovered profound facets across biology’s subdisciplines. Most importantly, he has gifted a new generation of scientists a profound sense of possibility and mandate: to look beyond the individual organism and understand the world as it truly is.

Lac operon: Two gems from the early days (2|2) by Christoph — When I recently wrote about noise in the basement of the lac operon, I stumbled across two papers in said basement, both of which I – and not only I – consider gems of early molecular biology: 'Isolation of the lac repressor'…

Into the Deep Blue by Christoph — Just let the deep ultramarine blue of the frontispiece sink in at your leisure. Take your time. Surely, You will soon realize that it is not a photograph of the night sky with the milky way and myriads of stars, but a de­tail from an oil painting...

indeed, 𝘙𝘶𝘨𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘢 𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘻𝘢𝘦 looke like fusilli, which are notably better at holding on salsa di pomodoro than spaghetti... and as pasta addicts, we fell instantly in love with the shape of this newly described alphaproteo from the Rhizobiales 🤭 #MicroSky

My first science animation was about the flexible kinase domains in the chemoreceptorarray in E. coli in 2020. Now, 5 years later, I have made an updated version of this animation: animini.nl/chemorecepto... Made in the group of @arianebriegel.bsky.social and based on the work of Dr. Alise Muok.

It's been a while due to program adjustments, but here is the latest #MattersMicrobial podcast: Dr. Gregory Morgan joins the #QualityQuorum discuss cancer viruses and the history of molecular biology. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord! @microbetv.bsky.social youtu.be/thStBjQydPE?...

"...and a new member, 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴" according to nicole @nicoledubilier.bsky.social , 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 is the "𝙀. 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙞 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻" (no rumor, she confirmed it) #MicroSky

Another beautiful edition of the @contamclub.bsky.social calendar just arrived!

Lac operon: Two gems from the early days (1|2) by Christoph — When I recently wrote about noise in the basement of the lac operon, I stumbled across two papers in said basement, both of which I – and not only I – consider gems of early molecular biology: 'Isolation of the lac repressor'…

#PhageSky "Pflichtletüre" for all phageophiles

FtsZ fans, take note 👇 christoph: I just stumbled upon an older post by Elio - doesn't this FtsZ-less 𝘌. 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘪 looks like a lava lamp from the 1970s ? ahem, the paper is from 2016 (Mercier R, Kawai Y, Errington J doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.91). #MicroSky smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2...

...deserves hashtags #Archaea #ArchaeaSky #MicroSky wonder what name you will come up for the "tiny arms" that are clearly not pili, not archaella, not pseudopodia either... pseudobracchia ? (not claiming to be the first, I talked of "tiny arms" here > smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2...)

@afrozec.bsky.social @anjbadri.bsky.social I imagine that would be of great interest to you 👇

Lichens Rise to Prominence Lichen fossils indicate they were strategic for the colonization of terrestrial environments.

#Archaea #ArchaeaSky #MicroSky exceptional work, hiro & team 👏👏👏 it's wonderful to see 𝘓. 𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘮 dancing. live videos reveal so much more than stills! ALT source: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint! Do you like ocean waves? We found similar waves on bacterial colonies! We found that this collective behavior, known as rippling, is nothing but surface waves on an active nematic. @princeton.edu @mpipks.bsky.social @ub.edu @icreacommunity.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

want to see a chemotaxis array (G) and a post-discharge T6SS (I) ? inside 𝘝𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪 inside a 𝘌𝘱𝘳𝘺𝘮𝘢 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘴 crypt ? go no further... #CryoET #CryoEM #teamtomo #MicroSky

mille grazie silvia @sbulgheresi.bsky.social for your permission to "borrow" from your fabulous book 𝘽𝙧𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 for this post 🙏 it took so long because we had to repair our website first. this task is not yet over&done, but all entries down to 2017 are available again now. #MicroSky

Lac operon: Wait… what?! Noise in the basement? by Christoph — If you've ever come across the topic of 'gene regulation in bacteria' in your biology classes at high school, college or university, you've inevitably learned about a classic: the lac operon of E. coli. Well, this it's not an exam…

New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine! 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky doi.org/10.1101/2025...

(𝘌. 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘪) chromosome replicationists take note 👇 (paper edited by mike o'donnell, so you know where you are) #MicroSky

Excited to share our latest research in @natmicrobiol.nature.com . We uncover hundreds of inhibitory interactions between common chemical pollutants and human gut bacteria. A thread🧵 (1/10) #microbiomesky #microsky @kiranrpatil.bsky.social lab @mrc-tu.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

chromosome segregationists (euk dept.) take note 👇 #MicroSky important ...and it's so, so much fun to read!

Commitment to Biofilm Formation Pseudomonas aeruginosa start biofilm formation using mechanosensitive appendages.

Natural and artificial variations of the standard genetic code Great new review by Julius Lukes & colleagues 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

...has to go to #RNASky 👍

wohoo! FtsZ aficionadas/os take note 👇 #MicroSky

𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴 at 63°C 🔥 sure enough, wheels on fire... and faaast like the ayrton senna of amoebae