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A better strategy for finding new hypercompetence mutations in murE
If we did decide to buy some EMS (it's cheap and readily available from Sigma) and repeat the mutagenesis, I think we should use a different strategy to select for hypercometent mutants. Specifically,...
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Selecting for rare NovR cells by enrichment in broth - would it work?
In the previous post about searching for new hypercompetent mutants I mentioned that our ability to find rare NovR transformants in a log-phase culture is limited by the need to put relatively small...
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Our garden, a dumping site!
While on a routine inspection of our grounds today, TPP came upon a pile, not a large pile, but nonetheless a pile of construction trash: pieces of concrete, polyurethane foam, plastic frame pieces,...
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#MicroTwJC: TCA Cycle and Voltammetry
This weeks Microbiology Twitter Journal club focuses on the electrifying bacterium known as Shewanella. This species of bacteria has been found in iron and heavy metal rich sediments, and can respire...
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Midday meals for schoolchildren in India: More good than harm
On July 16th at least 23 children in the Indian state of Bihar died after eating a midday meal that was provided for free by their school. Nearly as many are in critical condition in a local hospital....
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Two Structures, One Set of Genes
When presented with a problem it is typically easier to solve it with tools at your disposal rather than inventing something new. This is also the case for plants and animals. When presented with a...
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Field Guide to Arachnophobic Entomologists
Working with bugs professionally, it turns out, does not make you immune to the jeebies. A survey by American Entomologist magazine found that arachnophobic entomologists do exist. They're not even...
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Stress management program with obvious problems and omissions
Our institution's "wellness" office, from which oft springs well-meaning out-pourings, issued forth an invitation to attend an eight week stress management course for faculty/staff. The description...
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Any useless species?
A question sent to the Guardian's answer board: Are there any genuinely pointless species in the world which, if they were extinct, would have no material impact on the food chain or general...
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Does science make you moral?
Over the years there have been quite a number of studies that have looked at the effects of subliminal priming with religious ideas. Often, the results of these studies show that people become more...
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How to determine science textbook content in Texas
Just recently TPP wrote about efforts to alterscience textbooks in Texas. Here’s a comment from one of the people, Karen Beathard, who was appointed to the panel to review the content of science...
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Some quotations about the amplituhedron
posted by @ulaulaman via @tanzmax about #amplituhedron However, the calculation using the shape in an infinite-dimensional space, the amplituhedron, should provide us with completely new perspectives...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - Yellow Alder
Here’s a nice FFF – Turnera ulmifolia,yellow alder (not an alder really) (image courtesy of Prenn, Wikimedia Commons). It grows in our glasshouse, but TPP misplaced his image of it and was too pressed...
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Farmer Slime Molds Carry Pest-Killing Friends to Protect Their Crop
Even single-celled farmers have to protect their crop from hungry mouths. That's why slime molds carry certain toxic bacteria inside their bodies on their way to farming others in the soil. Like...
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Math and aquatic plants arrive at the same answer
Click on over to Doc Madhattan's blog to find out what an amplituhedron is. TPP remains uncertain, but when the small image of one appeared on the FoS banner, he was certain he was looking at the...
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TMI Friday: Quail in fear of fetishes !
The the Japanese quail is a plump and fluffy little creature. Some would say it is adorable, with its round physique and small stature. But this creature hides a dark and dirty secret. It is one of the...
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Milano street art: Albert Einstein
posted by @ulaulaman #AlbertEinstein #StreetArt #Milano In Paolo Sarpi, a street of Milano, there is a street artist who sketches a lot of subject (for example Iron Man or this iconic space monkey). In...
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Advice on political strategy
University politics are vicious because so little is at stake, so TPP has a career's worth of experience in tactics and strategy. One of the best ways to get rid of some really terrible, awful,...
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Life In the Triassic: Douglas Henderson
Great slide show of Douglas Henderson's Triassic artwork with a jazzy backing soundtrack. Keep the volume down a bit if you are at...
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Timing is everything - household jobs edition
September is always a schizophrenic weather month, in like summer, out like fall, and here in the Midwest the changeover can be sudden. Last week you needed the ceiling fan on one night, and the next...
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