Imagine you are at a picnic on a nice sunny day. Several bees stop by buzzing around your food particularly intrigued by a bowl of fruit. Though bees may be a nuisance on this particular day, they serve an essential role in the production of much of the food we eat. They produce honey, beeswax…
Author: Jennifer Tsang
The Unseen Cloud Makers from the Ocean
The ocean is teeming with microscopic life that despite their minuscule size, greatly impact our world’s ecosystem and climate. A large majority of these organisms are considered planktonic, those that are suspended in the ocean waters and rely on the current for movement. Phytoplankton are a type of plankton that are autotrophic and use just…
Multitudes of life in Ed Yong’s I Contain Multitudes
“Remember that animals emerged in a world that had already been teeming with microbes for billions of years. They were the rulers of the planet long before we arrived.” -Ed Yong Note: As an Amazon Associate I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from links in this post (affiliate disclosure). Last week, I was able…
Vibrio natriegens as the new E. coli?
Anyone who has dabbled into molecular biology knows that Escherichia coli has been the go-to model organism for quite some time. As an organism that is easy to grow and easy to genetically manipulate in the lab, E. coli has become one of the most commonly used microorganisms in labs that study a variety of…
Microbes at work in your kimchi
Kimchi is the national dish of South Korea and has become a global trend in the last several years. With its distinct and pungent odor, people seem to either love this stuff or despise it with all their passion. Kimchi is a mixture of vegetables and seasonings that is fermented before it is eaten. It…