Category Archives: Ecology

Methicillin Resistance in MRSA: Evolve and Spread Locally, Not Globally?

Posted on December 2, 2008 by mikethemadbiologist

For at least one clone of MRSA, it looks like there isn’t pandemic spread of a resistant clone, but, instead repeated gene transfer into a highly prevalent sensitive S. aureus background.
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Posted in Antibiotics, Ecology, Evolution, Microbiology, MRSA | 1 Comment

Why Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Must Incorporate Genetics

Posted on September 4, 2008 by mikethemadbiologist

Surveillance without genetics can’t tell us that much about the spread of antibiotic resistance.
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Posted in Antibiotics, E. coli, Ecology, Evolution, Genetics, Microbiology | 1 Comment

Did Someone Help Bear Stearns Tank?

Posted on August 27, 2008 by mikethemadbiologist

Was the Bear Stearns collapse the result of illegal manipulation?
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Posted in Bidness, Big Shitpile, Ecology | 7 Comments

Bacterial Clonal Spread and CTX-M-15 Beta-Lactamases

Posted on March 12, 2008 by mikethemadbiologist

This is like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, but evil.
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Posted in Antibiotics, E. coli, Ecology, Evolution, Microbiology, Plasmids, Public Health, We're Really Fucked | 1 Comment

Barcoding in Biology: A Tale of Two Meanings

Posted on March 11, 2008 by mikethemadbiologist

Barcoding has two very different meanings, even though both techniques are used in genomics–and often, at the same time.
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Posted in Bioinformatics, Ecology, Genetics, Genomics, Microbiology | Comments Off on Barcoding in Biology: A Tale of Two Meanings

Clonal Spread, Antibiotic Resistance, and UTIs

Posted on March 5, 2008 by mikethemadbiologist

Trying to treat the resistance problem, such as a drug resistant UTI-causing E. coli will not work in isolation. We have to expand the scale on which we envision the problem beyond the hospital door.
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Posted in Antibiotics, E. coli, Ecology, Evolution, Microbiology, Public Health | 5 Comments

‘Hopeful Monsters’: Nothing in Evolution Makes Sense Except in the Light of E. coli (and Shigella)

Posted on January 28, 2008 by mikethemadbiologist

Bacterial evolution muddies up the water.
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Posted in E. coli, Ecology, Evolution, Genetics, Genomics, Microbiology, Plasmids | 6 Comments

Algal Blooms and Goosesh-t Parkthe Esplanade

Posted on July 19, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

The Boston Globe reports that the Charles River swim race might be canceled because of cyanobacterial blooms. Again. I blame the geese. Seriously.
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Posted in Algae, Ecology, Environment, Microbiology | 7 Comments

Tuesday Botrylloid Ascidian Blogging

Posted on July 17, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Inspired by Quixote’s excellent post about ascidians–my firstest study organism EVAH–I’ve decided to delve into the archives and repost something of my own about ascidians.
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Posted in Ascidians, Ecology, Evolution | 5 Comments

Intermediate Disturbance, NAIRU, and the Laffer Curve

Posted on July 16, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

I had sort of hoped that the Laffer curve was no longer being discussed seriously (although who takes the Wall Street Journal editorial page seriously…). From the archives, here are some thoughts on the Laffer curve.
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Posted in Conservatives, Ecology, Economics, Statistics, Taxes | 5 Comments