Carole writes:

Dear Vincent and hosts of TWIM,

I am a long time listener and fan of your weekly TWIM podcasts. I really enjoyed the latest episode in which you discussed a paper by Kelly Wrighton and colleagues, and was especially happy to hear you talk about chemistry! On that note I’m writing to tell you and your listeners about a seminar series entitled the Chemistry of Microbiomes, organized by the Chemical Sciences Round Table of the National Academies of Sciences. In separate workshops the series addressed Earth, Marine and Human Microbiomes, and we were fortunate to have Kelly Wrighton speak at the Earth Microbiome seminars. The talks have been archived at https://nas-sites.org/csr/the-chemistry-of-microbiomes-earth-seminar/ . If you tune in next Wednesday, Dec. 7, you can watch the final talks of the series in the All Systems seminar to be held in Washington DC. http://nas-sites.org/csr/the-chemistry-of-microbiomes-all-systems-seminar/  Listeners can email or tweet questions during the talks.

Wishing all of you happy holidays.

Carole

Mark writes:

Hi Michele

I am that rare thing, a British baseball fan (and ASM member), and I have been rooting for the Cubbies this last post-season.  On top of their amazing win, my American post-doc, Morgan Feeney, just pointed out that, in the very early 1900’s, before they were called the Cubs, the Chicago NL team were briefly called the Chicago Microbes (due most likely to Chicago’s famously bad sewage system of 120 years ago – basically the river).

Take a look at this link:

https://bullshit.ist/when-the-cubs-were-the-microbes-ca418702d3d8#.jfjy9woax

Also the attached newspaper clipping.

Best wishes!

Mark

Professor Mark J. Buttner

Head, Department of Molecular Microbiology

John Innes Centre

NORWICH

UK

Supti writes:

Hello I had a question regarding specialized transduction, what are the consequences of the portion of the genome of phage which remains attached to bacterial chromosomes as a result of faulty excision? I mean does it lead to any kind of useful mutation?

Thank you

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