Check out our latest preprint from @jnvmartinson.bsky.social and @leosong.bsky.social! 🌟🦠 We found that conjugative plasmids can actively eliminate recipient bacteria that resist plasmid acquisition. 🧵

Today was a good day for #EmotionalSupportReptiles. Baby Carl the Kenyan Sand Boa visited some friends in a coffeeshop via my shirt pocket. And Azula the African Fire Skink shared major skinkatude. They are sweet creatures, actually.

Bacterial bioluminescence requires oxygen. So I poured a bright culture into a tube with a bubble, and Tyler McDonough on campus built me a rocking servo. Enjoy some #BioluminescenceZen! @univpugetsound.bsky.social @ASMicrobiology @microbetv.bsky.social youtu.be/2lUIGSfRtS0?...

Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! I will be retiring at the end of June. What I am proudest of is having supported so many women in science. Of the 30 undergraduate research students in my lab to go on to earn PhDs, 28 are women. It’s been an honor.

During every recording of #MattersMicrobial, I have a #TardiDoc #PodcastPal. #MicrobialEvangelist #MicrobiologyPodcast @asmicrobiology @univpugetsound @microbetv.bsky.social

Pseudomonas can be cool during podcasts. @GIANTmicrobes #MattersMicrobial

I care a great deal about many things in the world. But I have been listening to too many angry podcasts lately. I need to find a better balance. Ghost stories, science, and comedy help.

This says it all. #GramPositiveProkaryote. #MicrobialEvangelist #MicrobialCentrism @asmicrobiology @univpugetsound @MicrobeTV

A Warrior #Tardigrade I commissioned from a very talented friend years ago. I didn’t know it glowed in the dark!#MicrobialEvangelist #MicrobialCentrism #Tardigrade @asmicrobiology @univpugetsound @MicrobeTV

Years ago, a friend crocheted me a friendly bacterium of glow in the dark yarn. There are many cool patterns available out there as you can see from the link, and I am thinking of trying to talk friends into making some glowy microbes for me. microbialmenagerie.com/knitting-and...

I feel isolated quite a bit these days. But last night, I went to Devils Reef to remember the late Teresa Anderson and celebrate her memory and example of kindness. So many wonderful people were there.

Decades ago when I did water rescue work with Matigan. It was tough because I’m not comfortable in the water. Mattie knew it and did NOT want me in the water. But we had fun. Miss my canid symbiont.

Last night at Devils Reef. IYKYK. @devils_reef @tikicommando @gamaliel_giron_ @darkharbourbar

Hey @atinygreencell.bsky.social ! Can you guess what I will be doing with this next week? I’m grateful to the engineer downstairs for making this first attempt!

Seema Mattoo explains Bordetella pertussis, the cause of whooping cough, and talks with Mark Martin about how vaccine hesitancy is driving the return of childhood diseases. @markowenmartin.bsky.social

Taking a moment to think about the family and friends who have passed away over the last decade and a half. I miss them. And it is a reminder that kindness and love matter more than I ever imagined.

I had the best time today recording the next episode of #MattersMicrobial with Anne Thompson, discussing the "Invisible Microbial Forest," Prochlorococcus, predation, and nutrient recycling. Dr. Thompson was great!

This is how my Friday began... A podcast was released, and time to record another one. I am tired, but it is a good kind of tired.

New episode of the #MattersMicrobial podcast! Episode 123 features Dr. Seema Mattoo, who chats with the #QualityQuorum about how all research roads she took seem to involve Bordetella pertussis. Such a great #MicrobialChat! @unipugetsound @asmicrobiology @microbe.tv youtu.be/QGi1-qlcYUU?...

New paper! Why are some Nitrogen fixing microbes more complex? @msobol.bsky.social et al. find that microbes with more N2-fixation genes have larger, more versatile genomes, showing how changing environments shaped this key metabolism! > academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a... @isme-microbes.bsky.social

I’m trying not to take this personally. I should be tougher, though.

It’s always nice to visit with #BabyCarl. Six years old! Honestly, the micronoodle seems to know me and get snuggly. #EmotionalSupportSerpent

When we think about host-pathogen interactions we often forget about the fact, bacteria can be the hosts too! This study looks into the molecular basis of host specificity in Litunavirus and Luzseptimavirus phages link.springer.com/article/10.1... #BMCBiology #MicroSky #ViroSky🦠 🧪

I am not famous, important, or brilliant. I have a lot of psychological Samsonite. But the first time I looked up with a telescope and down with a microscope as a small boy, I felt awe and wonder. The feeling is pure and true, and has been with me all of my life.

My late brother Jack Martin and I loved the Pendergast novels. We always had such fun talking about them. I wish he was still here to enjoy this new one. Miss you, Brother.

My research lab has been very cluttered. Students didn’t have time to do research the past two years. Now I do have time. So it’s been clean up mode for me! I’m finding so many things! Nice memories, but it’s important to scale down and reorganize. Good opportunity to plan.

#LuxPortrait collaboration between yours truly and @jennifer.j.quinn . Here is Jane Hinton. Read about her fabulosity here: www.blackpast.org/african-amer... Yes, she helped invent Mueller-Hinton media. #MicrobialHeroes @ASMicrobiology @univpugetsound @microbetv.bsky.social

Speaking of deadly earworns and eyeworms: there is even bonus Levar Burton. Still, I have so many questions about the awesome video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjA...

For #BlackHistoryMonth: the story of William Augustus Hinton. Such challenges, accomplishments, and life. Please take a moment to celebrate Dr. Hinton's legacy. #LuxPortrait by Jennifer Quinn. This image ended up in a microbiology text! journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... @microbetv.bsky.social

Another #TardigradeGuardian for the top of my computer screen. H8rs beware!

An important reminder. I forget these rules too often.

*That's* what happened to my timeline. So I’m stuck in this one.

Ktedonobacteria are so freaking cool, with 10+ Mbp genomes, interesting morphologies and tons of BGCs

A 5500-year-old Treponema pallidum genome from Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia "This genome falls outside of known T. pallidum lineages today, but it has many genetic hallmarks associated with virulence in modern pathogens of these subspecies" Science pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41570125/ #MicroSky

A funny memory. At a SF bookstore, many years ago, the owner said to me: "You are not a mundane. You play at that role, but fool no one." Hmmm.

I have always been a giant goofball. I aspire to be *microbiology’s* giant goofball. Many thanks to @vexedmuddler.bsky.social and @jennifer.j.quinn for artwork and crafting with @giantmicrobes.bsky.social .

Hey y’all, New paper out from the lab in Microbial Genomics, starting down the rabbit hole of IS elements in Paeudomonas syringae www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Quite a few aches and pains. From the gym? Just age? I think I’m going to try some stretches for a couple of days.

Out Now! The building blocks of one of the most complex flagellar nanomachines #MicroSky

I think our HVAC doesn't move enough air in my office. I have some plants, but the CO2 levels (via my AraNet4) get to around 1000 (from 550) within an hour of my being there. I may need a submarine style scrubber. I cannot always have the windows open!

There are many media reports about "bad" microbes being "everywhere." They are also crafty. Here is a swab from our deionized water spigot onto R2A medium. The only source of nutrition for the microbes would be whatever survives deionization, dust, or splashback collecting water for media making.

I have long suffered from something like "face blindness." It takes me a LONG time to associate names with faces. I think it is due to social anxiety. It was a challenge as an educator! I create lists with photos and faces and review often. It's also why I love conferences with name tags!

Remember the medieval remedy we reconstructed years ago? We've now dissected the various ways it attacks and kills bacteria! Preprinted & submitted, led by @tosinorababa.bsky.social & Jess Furner-Pardoe w/ many collaborators #MicroSky #Ancientbiotics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Not the best day today. The solution is for me to create a better tomorrow. It’s up to each of us, after all.

Another Japanese toy I found on eBay. A bacteriophage infecting a bacterium. Yes, I have a lot of junk, but things like this bring me joy.

@darkmicrobio.bsky.social Sent you something today. Keep an eye out? It solves no problems but might make you laugh.

Want to ride the front of the wave of all-things-microbiology; field work, cultivation, microscopy, molecular, bioinformatics and AI tools? Me too! Please join us @mblscience.bsky.social for the 2026 Summer Microbial Diversity Course! Applications due soon. www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

I have always enjoyed showing #Micronauts “who” lives in their water bottles. #DocMartian Chianna demonstrates. These #WaterBottleBuddies are not bad or good. They simply are. #DontFearTheMicrobe #microbialcentrism @asmicrobiology @univpugetsound.bsky.social @microbetv.bsky.social

This is no longer my planet, based on what I see and hear. I will hold those I love dear, write letters to senators and representatives, and try to concentrate on making the world directly around me kinder and better. Hate is acid on our souls.