by Michael Malamy
As a model organism, E. coli played (and continues to play) a key role in molecular biology. Yet, its role in the gut does not appear to be so critical. How is it that as part of the gut microbiota the strict anaerobes (or nanaerobes) outnumber the Enterobacteriaceae by at least 1000 to 1?
by Barry Goldman — Can you conceive of an animal cell choosing independence and becoming protist-like? For instance, could a macrophage learn to live among the moist mosses in the woods and look perhaps like a slime mold?
Can you conceive of a virus that can divide by binary fission?
Why do you suppose there are few, if any, mycorrhizae in aquatic environments?
by Daniel Portnoy — Why don't mammals make antibiotics of the type so readily made by bacteria and fungi?
Why are there no known prokaryotic retroviruses?
As NASA's hotshot exobiologist, you are asked to design an Earth satellite system in which some organism(s) can live actively (i.e.. no spores) for millennia. How would you go about it? Specify an orbit of your choice.
