I couldn’t resist the pun in the title of this post: Metagenomics gets a gut feel. The newly released study behind it, which is having considerable play in the media and on the internet, is the first genetic catalog of the microbes (bacteria, fungi, others) that make up the microbiome (ecosystem) of the human gut. It’s more than a catalog of the wee beasties; it’s also a complete sequencing of the genomes from the most common of the inhabitants. This is the first such massive metagenomics project, where the idea is to analyze and compare the genomes of all the participants in the microbiome. More
Recent News
- Found: Another molecule needed at the origin of life
- For real: A new way to produce electricity
- New: Single molecule sensor array
- Finally(?)…artificially making blood stem cells in quantity
- Update: Chinese space station
- Looking at the strange face of antimatter
- Life on Mars, if it exists, is below the surface
- A different kind of lens for time
- Oh please, “skinput”
- Update: More Moon water
- Cutting cancer cell immortality short
- First time: Watching the unfolding story of proteins in living cells
- Newly named: Copernicum (element 112)
- Making jet fuel from biomass
- Nanobubbles are really slick

Biology punishment
- What did the microbiologist give his biologist girlfriend for her birthday?
Designer genes, of course. You were expecting flowers?
- An English major taking his biology exam referred to a microtome as an ‘itsy bitsy book.’ More »