Chris writes:
Dear Vincent, I have a fun question for your panel about Mars.
I was watching NASA talk about how Mars’ atmosphere was stripped away and was wondering about Mars bugs. Here are some fun (probable) facts I learned.
When life was starting on earth, 3.8 billion years ago, Mars had an atmosphere about the same size as earth and had liquid water in lakes and streams all over the surface. So Earth and Mars look a lot alike. At 3.5 billion years ago, Mars’ dynamo cooled down and its magnetic field stopped. Then the high solar activity of the sun sent strong solar winds that stripped away Mars’ atmosphere, and Mars turned into the icy desert we see today. The one place NASA would look for microbial life today is in Mars’ aquifers. If they found some, they would like to know if the genetics are essentially different between Mars and Earth
So let’s assume that there was some cross pollination between planets when both were watery, by asteroids throwing Mars and Earth rocks back and forth. My question is; would it be possible for Mars microbes and viruses to infect Mars colonists or would the genetics be too diverged after three or so billion years. Will Martians have to put up “Don’t drink the water!” signs.
Andrea writes:
Hello Again,
Here is another one of those articles I find a little strange but what do I know….
http://exchange.nottingham.ac.uk/blog/cockroach-brains-future-antibiotics/
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34517443
I guess it kind of makes sense but I would never have thought of this. I bet you already know about this, don’t you?
The rains have returned to Seattle. Yippee!
Arthur writes:
Hello TWiMers!
I’ve been an avid listener off and on regular for many years since my undergraduate days! I started off learning about viruses from you and now love to listen for interesting tidbits on other microbes! I work in Mycoplasma pneumoniae and my graduate school has one of the largest mycoplasma research groups in the US!
I think you’ve discussed the synthetic genome cell before (a Mycoplasma species!), but I don’t think that I’ve seen a full session about the smallest known self replicating prokaryotes! I’m a bit biased, but I know some wonderful researchers who would LOVE to do a podcast if there would be interest!
Keep on being awesome and thanks for making my bench time entertaining!
-Art,
Graduate Student
Sean writes:
Hi everyone,
I’ve been listening to TWIM for the last few months during my more monotonous lab tasks and have learned so much more about microbiology in systems I’m not familiar with. I would have never thought to read some of the papers shared on the show. However, as a plant pathologist, I keep waiting for the day you put us on the map and bring one of us on! I’ve only been listening since TWIM #87, so maybe I missed it. If not, I know Michele lives about an hour southeast from a university with a pretty decent plant path department.
Kind Regards,
Sean
Anthony writes:
Though exposure to Aspergillus by immunocompetent people, generally is without drama, that’s not true for penguins. Air quality is a big question in maintaining these birds in captivity.
If climate change brings an increase in Aspergillus spores to the arctic, this won’t be good for penguins.
Anthony
# # #
“…
Air quality: Penguins as a group are highly susceptible to air-borne fungal infections. For this reason, the air quality in an indoor penguin exhibit should be optimal. Airflow, fresh air exchange, and filter capacity should be researched to provide the cleanest air possible. Aspergillus fumigatus spores range in size from 2.5–3 microns with other aspergillus species spores as large as 10 microns. In order to remove
these spores from the air, a filter should remove particles in that size range or smaller. If possible sources of aspergillus are external to the exhibit then consideration should be given to reducing fresh air intake and providing a high-quality filter on the incoming air line as well as in the recirculation line. If the possible sources of aspergillus are internal to the exhibit, then a high-quality filter in the recirculating system, a high volume air change per hour, and increased fresh air exchange—as well as identifying and removing the aspergillus source within the exhibit—should be considered. Collection of regular air cultures in the exhibit as well as the air-handling system is a good practice in preventative maintenance. …
…”
http://tinyurl.com/nqvkgmk
Geoffrey writes:
Drs. Schaechter, Racaniello, Swanson, Schmidt, and Any Guests that I Might Have Missed:
In honor of a section that shows up on your show on occasion, I thought that I might send you an actual talmudic question that I posed and partially answered for another podcast a year or so ago:
Why were the Hebrews unable to take their leavening with them when they left Egypt under Moses’ leadership?
During the seven days of Passover (the comemortation of the Exodus), Jews are forbidden to eat chametz. Although often translated as “leavened bread” (the word seems to derive from a root for “sour”, indicating that it was a sourdough-type food), the word is probably better translated as “foods or drinks containing leaven” (Exodus 12:15) which includes beer (the production of beer and bread were intermingled in Ancient Egypt and, probably, most of the Ancient Middle East). Why bring this up on TWiM? because chametz is the result of se’or or microbial fermentation. What could be more appropriate than an actual talmudic question about microbiology?
Now, Exodus 12:15 provided the injunction against leaven – “For seven days you shall eat matzeh” (matzeh is unleavened bread, flour and water mixed and baked within 20 minutes, not enough time for yeast production to kick in) but not the reason. A reason was given in Exodus 13:8 – “And you shall explain to your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went free from Egypt.’.” – but, honestly, that isn’t much of a reason. Part of another reason was given in Exodus 12:34 where it stated that “they took their dough before it was leavened” and in 12:39 where it stated that “they baked matzeh of the dough, which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, since they were thrust out of Egypt and could not delay”. That, on its surface, might seem reasonable enough but any of us who have baked bread and / or know anything about bread microbiology know that there is something wrong about this whole situation. If they took their dough with them, then it already contained the se’or (“starter”). The bread might have collapse on them if they waited too long to cook it but they didn’t leave the se’or behind. That could only have happened had they only brought their grain or flour with them and mixed it with water while they were setting up camp and that is not what the text says.
And there is another complication. Exodus 12:39 implied that they couldn’t bring their leavening with them because they were “thrust out of Egypt and could not delay”. In other words, they didn’t have enough time. Yet the Hebrews had sufficient time to gather jewelry from the Eqyptians (Exodus 12:35-36), enough supplies to build the tabernacle and an altar (Exodus 36-38), and their livestock (Exodus 12:32, 38). They even had time to bring their kneading-boards (mish’eret) bound in the clothes on their shoulders (Exodus 12:34). We know that the Egyptians (and, therefore, and Hebrews living in Egypt) used two main types of starter: a baked yeast cake for storage and, basically, a sourdough starter for continuous use. As most people who have dealt with sourdough starters know, these starters, with their often unique tastes, were cherished family possessions being maintained like a family pet and passed down from generation to generation. They were also mobile. Many American prospectors in Alaska in late 19th / early 20th Century kept them as a cherished part of their minimal possessions in their camps. That means that, if the Hebrews had time to gather other possessions, then they had time to pack their se’or and bring it along. In fact, if they brought their dough along, then they were, technically, bringing their se’or.
So, that brings us back to the question of why leavened bread was forbidden during Passover. I propose that the reason was cultural rather than physical (i.e., a matter of time). The Hebrews that left Egypt were depicted as belonging to many tribes. Their journey through the Wilderness was a depiction of their unification into one overall tribe: the Jews. Se’orim (sourdough starters) were cultural heritage. Because they were handed down from generation to generation, they represented the past. Discarding the se’orim and eating matzeh for seven days until they could make more through wild capture was an act of discarding the past as various hebraic tribes and starting a new life as one larger jewish tribe. I suspect that the Rosh Hashanah ceremony of tashlikh – when one tosses bread crumbs into a body of water to cast away the sins of the previous year – is a similar act. Here too, the se’or and chametz serve as symbols of ones past but delving into the connection further is, I fear, a talmudic question for another time.
This might seem a strange excursion for the TWiM podcast but, when I started to piece it together, I found it to be another fascinating example of how microbiology can serve as a scaffold for understanding cultures long-since vanished from the Earth.
Thanks for the podcast,
Geoffrey