The Leopard and the Mouse: A Microbiologist's Take
by Fred Neidhardt

Marine Archaea and the Nitrogen Cycle
by Douglas Bartlett What is more stirring than to contemplate the cycles of matter in nature? We sense that we witness vital transactions of this planet’s metabolism, a fulfilling thought. Such matters speak particularly loudly to us microbiologists: not only do global fluxes concern the elements of life but are to a great extent driven by microbial activities. In this vein, here is some important news. Analyses of the nitrogen budget in the oceans suggest that a whole lot more nitrogen is being fixed than was recognized. Who does this extra nitrogen fixation? A recent

Genomic Secrets of P. infestans, the Master of Potato Blight
This is the third and final post for our week of the oomycetes. In our first post, Elio provided the foundation by answering five key questions about this often neglected and misunderstood group. This was followed by a reminder from Mercè Piqueras of the role one member, the potato blight pathogen, has played in our history. Here in this final offering, Merry explores what we now—more than 150 years after The Great Famine—know about this pathogen's tactics from its genom

A Mold That Changed the Course of History
In this, the second of our three posts focusing on the oomycetes, we are pleased to offer a post from the blog by Mercè Piqueras, La lectora corrent (The Common Reader), translated here from Catalan. by Mercè Piqueras Micrograph o

Five Questions About Oomycetes
by Elio We recently reprinted an article by Patrick Keeling entitled Five Questions About Microsporidia. His fine discussion prompted us to attempt a similar examination of another highly important—but oft-neglected—group of microbes, the oomycetes or water molds. We will post three articles, the first one (herewith) describing oomycete biology, the other two focus on a particular oomycete: the late potato blight pathogen. There we w