You escape from your lab into the great outdoors for an afternoon, with your new DNA detector in your pocket. You poke about here and there, and find sites where there is a measurable amount of DNA free in solution, say a picogram or more. Where might you be?
Can you envisage a Winogradsky column consisting of only Gram-negative bacteria (or just Gram-positives, for that matter)?
On Earth, L‑amino acids in proteins go with D‑ribo- or D‑deoxyribo-nucleotides. At which point in time during the evolution of living systems was the decision made to make use of only one of the enantiomer pairs?
The endosymbiosis of a cyanobacterium led to the formation of the photosynthetic organelle, the chloroplast. Along evolutionary history this organelle proved quite plastic; there are many non-photosynthetic variants with very different functions...
by Paul Evans — Which bacteria besides the rhizobia undergo terminal (irreversible) differentiation?
(no fair saying 'spores')
A twist on Schrödinger's Cat… Instead of radioisotope, a Geiger counter, a poison and a cat, inside a sealed box with a light and kept at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, you place a Winogradsky column and a sealed vial...
Why are there so many species of microbes on earth?
