It might! A key part to one theory is Fleming left a plate at room temp instead of incubating it. But why do that? Incubation affects the color of the staph colonies, which would be important for his agar art, so could be he didn’t incubate the plate because he was playing around with that.
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 PM
It might! A key part to one theory is Fleming left a plate at room temp instead of incubating it. But why do that? Incubation affects the color of the staph colonies, which would be important for his agar art, so could be he didn’t incubate the plate because he was playing around with that.
I wrote about the history of the field of "experimental evolution" with @worksinprogress.bsky.social
Read it here 👉 www.worksinprogress.news/p/evolution-...
Read it here 👉 www.worksinprogress.news/p/evolution-...
The evolution of bacteria
Generations of microbes evolve in hours, not millennia. By speeding up Darwin’s clock, scientists have watched evolution happen in real time, and it’s changed how we understand natural selection.
www.worksinprogress.news
November 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I wrote about the history of the field of "experimental evolution" with @worksinprogress.bsky.social
Read it here 👉 www.worksinprogress.news/p/evolution-...
Read it here 👉 www.worksinprogress.news/p/evolution-...
Read about it in my commentary with Gautam Dantas on @gardp.bsky.social and @cmicomms.bsky.social 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Ecological strategies to end the war on resistance
www.sciencedirect.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Read about it in my commentary with Gautam Dantas on @gardp.bsky.social and @cmicomms.bsky.social 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Read it here 👉 medium.com/the-quantast...
The “Good” Side of Antibiotic Resistance
New tools to protect the gut microbiome come from an unlikely source: antibiotic-destroying enzymes from bacterial pathogens
medium.com
September 29, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Read it here 👉 medium.com/the-quantast...
Read my full article here 👉 medium.com/the-quantast...
The Age of the Earth and La Tour Eiffel
If the Eiffel Tower were to represent the history of life on Earth, how far down would the history of Homo sapiens begin?
medium.com
May 7, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Read my full article here 👉 medium.com/the-quantast...
🌸 First flowering plants: 1/4 down the spire
🦖 Origins of the dinosaurs: 1/2 down the spire
🐚 Cambrian explosion: Third-floor platform
🦠 First eukaryotes: Between the second and third floors
🧫 Origins of bacteria: Somewhere below the first floor
🦖 Origins of the dinosaurs: 1/2 down the spire
🐚 Cambrian explosion: Third-floor platform
🦠 First eukaryotes: Between the second and third floors
🧫 Origins of bacteria: Somewhere below the first floor
May 7, 2025 at 9:15 PM
🌸 First flowering plants: 1/4 down the spire
🦖 Origins of the dinosaurs: 1/2 down the spire
🐚 Cambrian explosion: Third-floor platform
🦠 First eukaryotes: Between the second and third floors
🧫 Origins of bacteria: Somewhere below the first floor
🦖 Origins of the dinosaurs: 1/2 down the spire
🐚 Cambrian explosion: Third-floor platform
🦠 First eukaryotes: Between the second and third floors
🧫 Origins of bacteria: Somewhere below the first floor
Analogies like this can bring the 4.54 billion-year scope geological deep time, down to a more human level. Human origins might be just the "skin of paint" at the top but where does other life lie on the 1024 ft tower?
May 7, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Analogies like this can bring the 4.54 billion-year scope geological deep time, down to a more human level. Human origins might be just the "skin of paint" at the top but where does other life lie on the 1024 ft tower?
Read it here: medium.com/the-quantast...
Return of the Soil Bacteria
Discovery of a new class of broad-spectrum antibiotic, a lasso-shaped molecule call lariocidin, in slow-growing soil bacteria.
medium.com
April 13, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Read it here: medium.com/the-quantast...
Also, if you think this work is cool, note that it was funded by the NIH NIAID. If federal funding for scientific research is cut, there will be a lot less of this kind of work!
February 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Also, if you think this work is cool, note that it was funded by the NIH NIAID. If federal funding for scientific research is cut, there will be a lot less of this kind of work!
You can read the full paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The tetracycline resistome is shaped by selection for specific resistance mechanisms by each antibiotic generation - Nature Communications
Bacteria can use different mechanisms to become resistant to the same antibiotic class. Here, the authors study bacterial strains that express genes conferring tetracycline resistance via different me...
www.nature.com
February 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
You can read the full paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This showed that each tet generation preferentially selects for specific mechanisms of resistance, and in a pattern that matches the history of drug development and mech discovery in pathogens.
February 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
This showed that each tet generation preferentially selects for specific mechanisms of resistance, and in a pattern that matches the history of drug development and mech discovery in pathogens.
Using mixes with only one mechanism per pot, we ruled out inter-mech interactions as driving this. We also ruled out MIC alone as driving this (e.g., several DES1s had MICs higher than any RPP in gen 2 drugs).
February 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Using mixes with only one mechanism per pot, we ruled out inter-mech interactions as driving this. We also ruled out MIC alone as driving this (e.g., several DES1s had MICs higher than any RPP in gen 2 drugs).