Talmudic Question #113
Are there any niches in the human body where you might find bacteria carrying out autotrophic metabolism?
Other Posts
On The Definition of Prokaryotes
by Nanne Nanninga — As will be argued below the present definition of a prokaryote is highly unsatisfactory. To give an example: a prokaryote is "a cell or organism lacking a nucleus and other membrane-enclose organelles, usually having its DNA in a single circular molecule". This seems a summary of the original definition of...
Seeing Biology Thru the Eyes of Visually-Impaired Students
by Amy Cheng Vollmer — I have been teaching introductory biology in higher Ed since 1985, my first four years at Mills College and now at Swarthmore College since 1989. At both institutions, these courses (lecture + laboratory, taught by faculty members) were open to majors and non-majors. Through these years, it has been…
Hey flagellum, shift into reverse gear!
by Christoph — In a classical manual gearbox, a gearwheel is inserted between the countershaft and the drive shaft. This reverses the direction of rotation of the drive shaft. Flagella have found a smart solution to do without an additional gearwheel in their gearbox: They run their engine along the outside of a gearwheel or, if they reverse the direction of rotation, on its inside.
Talmudic Question #61
Endocytosis is said to be an exclusively eukaryotic property. Why did prokaryotes not develop this ability?
Talmudic Question #13
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the root nodules of legumes differentiate into bacteroids, terminal cells incapable of reproduction. The nodules contain a few dormant bacterial cells that can proliferate upon release from the plant...
Where Mathematicians & Biologists Meet
by Joe Mahaffy — Mathematics and Biology have a long history together. It goes back to early studies on epidemiology (such as John Snow's on cholera and the Broad Street pump), and includes Ross's quantitative studies that show how malaria can be controlled by careful analysis of data. And, of course, there are many…
