Talmudic Question #120
Why are there no known prokaryotic retroviruses?
Other Posts
A Bacterium Learns Long Division
by Nanne Nanninga — The common picture of a dividing rod-shaped bacterium encompasses the positioning of the divisome, including an FtsZ-ring, in the cell center. This occurs after the cell has doubled its length without increasing its diameter. Conversely, increase in diameter without cell elongation would seem highly unlikely in a rod-shaped…
When Fungi Ruled the Earth
by Elio — A gigantic fossil is making news and revitalizing an old debate. Several museums possess specimens of a cylindrical organism named Prototaxites...
Talmudic Question #185
Can you conceive of a virus that can divide by binary fission?
Of Terms in Biology: The Biological Pump
by Roberto — Quick, without much thinking, what image came to mind when you read "biological pump" in today's title? If you are like me, predisposed to think in cellular and molecular terms, you might have thought of an integral membrane protein that pumps molecules into or out the cell. Perhaps any of...
Talmudic Question #125
Oligotrophs are organisms that thrive in nutrient scarce environment, as opposite to copiotrophs, who like it rich. Which of these two kinds of microbes do you think is most abundant on Earth?
Trees – Phylogenetic and Real
by Elio — Picture yourself walking in a woods where the branches of the trees are festooned with bouquets of yellow objects that on close inspection look a bit like golf balls, dimples and all. This is what you would come across in the beech forests of the southern hemisphere. The yellow balls are...
