Category Archives: Microbiome

Where Did the Term ‘Core Microbiome’ Come From?

In an excellent post about the vaginal microbiome (the microbes that in the vagina), Dr. Rad asks: I wonder if the idea of a ‘core microbiome’ came from Lourens Baas Becking’s oft-quoted idea in microbial ecology that ‘Everything is everywhere, … Continue reading

Posted in Ecology, Genomics, Microbiology, Microbiome, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

A Handy Transformation for Microbiome Data

Handling non-normal frequency data that also have zeros.
Continue reading

Posted in Ecology, Microbiome, Statistics | 10 Comments

You Know the Human Microbiome Has Made It Big When…

…someone makes an animated cartoon about it.
Continue reading

Posted in Microbiome | 1 Comment

The Fifty Most Sequenced Bacterial Genomes

It’s (very) partially my fault.
Continue reading

Posted in E. coli, Genomics, Microbiome | 3 Comments

Finally, Someone Is Allocating Genomics Resources the Right Way

Someone must have learned something from the last few years of microbiome work…
Continue reading

Posted in Microbiome

Microbiome Triumphalism and Misusing a Metaphor

The human microbiome isn’t an organ. We have evolved to dampen the effects of the microbiome’s inherent variability on our bodies.
Continue reading

Posted in Microbiology, Microbiome, Obesity | 6 Comments

I, For One, Welcome Our Gammaproteobacterial Arsenic-Using Overlords: Why Old School Microbiology Still Matter

This paper demonstrates the need for culturing organisms. That’s something we should emphasize when we train students and post-docs.
Continue reading

Posted in Aliens! I Seen 'Em!, E. coli, Ecology, Genomics, Microbiology, Microbiome, NASA, News Media

How to Take a Government-Approved Poop

Ain’t science cool?
Continue reading

Posted in Microbiome | 20 Comments

A Final Observation on the Human Microbiome Research Conference: An Underappreciated Breakthrough

Hundreds of dollars per genome, and hundreds of genomes per week.
Continue reading

Posted in Genomics, Microbiology, Microbiome | 3 Comments

A Benefit of the Human Microbiome Project: Putting the “99% of Bacteria Are Unculturable” Canard to Rest

One of the interesting developments from the Human Microbiome Project is that we’re discovering that we really can culture many human-associated bacteria.
Continue reading

Posted in Microbiology, Microbiome | 17 Comments