Moselio Schaechter - In the Company of Microbes

The blog could only have been conceived by Elio. His store of knowledge about the science of microbiology is unequalled. He is also an unusually articulate writer and has a unique and welcoming approach to the content.

The 70 articles are divided into seven sections entitled: “The View from Here,” “Accounts of the Past,” “Small Wonders,” “On Being a Microbiologist,” “Personal Notes,” “The Ways of Microbes,” and “Teaching Things”

The authors, in addition to Elio, are presidents of ASM and a slew of distinguished microbiologists from all around the globe. The topics are as varied as the authors, ranging from, “Where Mathematicians and Biologists Meet” to “Bacterial Hopanoids: The Lipids That Last Forever.”

This is more than just a collection of articles: it is a treasure chest of wise, amusing, and even profound statements about the ubiquity and relevance of the microbial world. As Elio notes in his introduction, “The purpose of this blog is to share my appreciation for the width and depth of the microbial activities on this planet. I will emphasize the unusual and the unexpected phenomena for which I have a special fascination.”

Michael Goldberg, PhD

Executive Director Emeritus, ASM

Jeff Fox PhD

Current Topics and Feature Editor, Microbe

Preface

Blog Years Are Like Dog Years

How did Small Things Considered come about? When I retired from Tufts University some twenty years ago, I realized that for too long I had lived comfortably within the focused world of E. coli and its ilk. Out there, far from the lab bench, amazing and unexpected things were happening, and I was only dimly aware of some. A few of them danced in my imagination; many were just out of sight. So, I started to pay more attention to these groovy stories.

My itch of writing egged me on to look for a way to share my pleasure of exploration with others. There weren’t many venues for such endeavors then, but someone whispered blog in my ear. I barely knew how to spell it, leave alone what it was, so I called Michael Goldberg, the then Executive Director of the the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), who encouraged me and put me in touch with Chris Condayan, who knew a lot about such things. Not only did Michael explain this enigmatic word to me, but he also told me that they had been talking about an ASM-sponsored blog, and, yes, if I were willing to do this, they would help me out. Chris set me up by designing the lay-out, plugging me into the proper software, and even coming up with a happy name for the blog. As an aside, when I was once interviewed on the NPR radio program All Things Considered , I coyly asked them if they minded our using a name derived from theirs. They said that they were actually pleased.

This blog began in 2006. Blog years are indeed like dog years, and a decade is a long time. This milestone is worth celebrating, I think. We (and I will explain the “we” right away) have been at it assiduously for all this time and, miraculously, have not missed a single one of the scheduled postings. These have been bi-weekly, Monday being devoted to longer items, Thursday to brief ones such as Talmudic Questions, Pictures Considered, or Terms of Biology. Sometime last September we reached 1000 posts, and we still doggedly continue to produce them at our habitual pace.

The “we” refers to the team that has been working with me for much of this time. Merry Youle joined me in this effort almost immediately after its inception. In the course of time, we became partners and for several years shared the responsibility for writing most of the posts, pitilessly editing each other’s drafts. From this emerged a comradely friendship that continues to this day. In time, we asked others to join us, making for an interactive and productive team. The current members are Daniel Haeusser, Jamie Henzy, Gemma Reguera, and Christoph Weigel. I must mention Marvin Friedman, who would still be contributing a post a month were he still with us. Early on, I opened the pages of this blog to others, especially graduate students, who, I reckoned, could benefit from the experience. I am glad that blogging by students has become a widespread activity elsewhere. Others, including notable people in the field, have presented their thoughts and opinions in STC. Nowadays most of the blog items are indeed authored by folks outside our inner group, and the choice of articles for this book reflects that.

This book was started by a prompt from Chris. For this collection I scanned our archives and focused on material that one could broadly call musings—reflections on personal and historical interactions between the writers and microbes. A few of the pieces included fall outside this scope and are mostly about unusual discoveries. Why did I not opt for more science-oriented stuff? Two reasons: one is that their appeal would be narrower; the other is that such material becomes rapidly dated. And besides, wouldn’t you want to hear what questions and puzzles still animate microbiologists, what they think about both the past and the future of the field?

Our 1000 posts have garnered some two million views. I guess that’s something to brag about, but more to the point is the enjoyment that this effort has brought me. I have always had something of a naturalistic bone in my body. Being obliged to work at the bench, pleasurable though it has been, kept me from relishing the small wonders that are “out there,” where there is a never-ending pageant of astounding variations on the theme of microbial life. In old age, such hankerings are to be indulged and such wanderings to be treasured. They help provide answers to some of the eternal questions that I (and you too, dear reader) have been asking intermittently since adolescence. So, my deepest thanks to all who have given me this jewel of an opportunity but most of all, to the small things that are waiting to be considered.

Elio Schaechter

October 2015

San Diego, California, USA

Acknowledgments

My thanks go to all who have contributed to the blog over the years and have helped make exciting stories accessible to a wide public. I single out Merry Youle, who was my partner for several years and a friend. She helped me in every way imaginable, from the choice of topics, to doing the wisest of editing, to providing me with a moral compass, to holding my hand (at a distance, as she lives in Hawaii, I in California). I thank my other collaborators on this endeavor: Gemma Reguera, Daniel Haussler, Jamie Henzy, and, early on, Mark Martin and Welkin Johnson. Christoph Weigel needs to be acknowledged in a special way for his extraordinary contributions to both the blog’s content and format. Also, I thank the late Marvin Friedman who, for many years, was another faithful contributor. All these persons did more than supply material: they participated in thinking about ways this blog could better fulfill its purpose. They have all done it with verve, passion, and great insights. I have been very lucky indeed.

I thank the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) for sponsoring the blog, especially the Communications staff directed by Erika Shugart. Chris Condayan generously and imaginatively supported this effort from the very beginning and has been a source of help and encouragement ever since. Andréa Gwartney did a superb job dealing with the layout and organization of the material. Ray Ortega later took charge of producing each issue of the blog, using a keen eye and warm heart in order to achieve this blog’s intended purposes. All of these persons have treated their work as a labor of love.

I thank my wife, Edith, for her support. She is not a scientist but has played a huge role in everything else it takes to carry out such an activity. I also thank my daughter Judith for allowing me to use her drawings. She is a renowned stained glass artist whose doodles are often of imaginary protists and diatoms. I never expected to see both our names on the cover of the same book.