As 2018 reaches its last hours, we reflect on the past year and set goals for the upcoming year. At The Microbial Menagerie, the last year showcased a menagerie of microbes in all sorts of environments: within zombie worms in the depth of the ocean, within sourdough starters all over the world, and within sap-feeding insects.
Guest blog posts
This year also featured two guest bloggers, Kanika Khanna, who wrote about gut microbiome citizen science, and Ananya Sen who wrote about oxidative stress. Thank you both for sharing your microbial stories through your writing!
(If you are interested in writing a guest post for The Microbial Menagerie, visit the guest blogging page.)
The Microbial Menagerie top three stories from 2018
(1) Angelina Hesse, the Woman Who Introduced Agar to Microbiology
Wonder how agar medium was developed? Read this story to learn about how Angelina Hesse’s contribution to microbiology in the 1880’s gave rise to the agar medium we use today.
(2) There’s a Fungus Among Us and It’s Making Peppers Spicy
Some peppers have evolved to produce capsaicinoids in response to fungal predation. Learn more in this blog post.
(3) Are We More Bacteria Than Human? That Depends When You Last Pooped
Microbiologists long thought that bacterial cells outnumber human cells 10 to 1 on our bodies. Now, we know this ratio is not quite right and whether we are more bacteria than human depends on when we last pooped.
What’s up next in 2019?
Since the inception of the blog, it has gone without a logo… for nearly three years! That’s about to change so get ready to see some new aesthetics on the site!
I’ll continue to provide stories from all corners of the microbial world. I’ll also be infusing more history into the blog posts – I love seeing how new research develops from previous work and hope you find that interesting as well. If you have a topic you’d like for me to cover, leave a comment below!
One Comment
very nice