Do you want to see the "big picture" on climate change?

Here it is.

Emissions are on the left, and include CO2, CH4, N2O, and f-gases. Natural CO2 sinks (from healthy forests & oceans) are on the right. And carbon removal, what little there is, is on the right, too. All expressed as GWP100.

Now out in AEM @asm.org! 🎉🧪

*High school student-isolated mutants 👉🏻 novel genetic causes of biofilm-associated adaptations
*We learn how diversity arises quickly and is maintained
*EvolvingSTEM enables scalable research in classrooms & promotes scientific literacy

journals.asm.org/eprint/FBU9M...

Got this one right in my bracket…

Don’t talk, chew, or breathe (add cook) in front of a pre-teen. It upsets their sensibilities. 🙄

Please, listen till the end to this glorious statement: “There were no books”.

Darwin’s feelings seem more relatable with each passing day. 😑

Thank you to all the wonderful folks at Johns Hopkins Environmental Health & Engineering and my host @shilvashrestha.bsky.social for a great visit! What a terrific group working to advance environmental health science.

Onwards and upwards!

a cartoon skunk is standing on a yellow carpet next to a chair and says `` pepe le pew '' . ALT: a cartoon skunk is standing on a yellow carpet next to a chair and says `` pepe le pew '' .

Time to stock up on hydrogen peroxide from Costco.

Viruses in marine sediments: a review of their effect on biogeochemistry and microbial interactions | Applied and Environmental Microbiology In the ocean, viruses are known to mediate the carbon cycle, keeping dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the microbial loop and preventing its movement into secondary consumers (1). However, few direct ...

New paper out! We sat down and compiled all viral work in marine sediments. The water column has been getting a second look for viral interactions, its time for sediment to have the same!
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Wonderful! Thanks for choosing #AEM for its publication.

As long as they are mine…

a bunch of seagulls standing on a wire ALT: a bunch of seagulls standing on a wire

The “my lab” crowd would like a word…

Habitat heterogeneity drives microbial community assembly and functional specialization in extremely arid ecosystems | Applied and Environmental Microbiology Understanding microbial adaptation in hyperarid environments is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses to extreme stressors. This study provides an integrative framework linking environmental heterogeneity to microbial community assembly and metabolic specialization across diverse habitats in one of Earth’s driest basins. Our findings demonstrate that deterministic environmental filtering dominates community assembly in deserts and moderately saline lakes, whereas stochastic processes prevail in wastelands and hypersaline systems. Habitat‑specific metabolic specialization is evident, with nitrogen cycling being key in terrestrial soils and sulfur metabolism central to saline lakes. By significantly improving the recovery of uncultured diversity through targeted strategies, this study bridges a major gap between molecular surveys and cultivable microorganisms. These findings advance ecological theory on community assembly and offer a model for studying microbial resilience and functional evolution under extreme aridity.

✅ And our beautiful cover of the Huancai Lake in the Turpan-Hami Basin, China — Great ecosystem to study microbial adaptations to hyperarid ecosystems. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

✅ MANUFACTURING PLATFORMS FOR FUNGAL CHEMICAL PRODUCTION — Scaled production of fungal terpene trichodiene to suppress Fusarium toxin.

✅ A MARINE YEAST WITH A TASTE FOR AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS — Eukaryotic mechanisms for biotransformation of these pollutants.

✅ CLOSTRIDIOIDES DIFFICILE STRESS RELIEF VALVE — Conserved mechanisms for survival under nitrosative stress in the colon to guide therapeutic interventions.

✅ A PHAGE COCKTAIL AGAINST PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA — Multi-receptor targeting delays resistance and enhances therapeutic robustness.

✅ CO-EVOLUTION OF FUNGAL LACCASES AND PLANT LIGNIN — Ancestral emergence of these enzymes and their lignin substate in plants.

✅ A METAGENOMIC VIEW OF SEPTIC ARTHRITIS IN CATTLE — Novel epidemiological insights into the etiological agents and their antimicrobial resistance profile.

Articles of Significant Interest in This Issue | Applied and Environmental Microbiology Liu et al. (e01971-25) describe the evolutionary history of laccase isozymes in white-rot fungi and demonstrate links to the ancestral emergence of their lignin substate in plants.

‼️The February issue of ASM Journals #AppEnvMicro #AEM is out and, with it, the articles I picked for the Spotlight.

A 🧵 in the comments 👇

doi.org/10.1128/aem....

New preprint from my lab‼️
We describe how cations in the media remodel the Geobacter envelope for reciprocal control of cytochrome-loaded vesicles and conductive pili.

Important phenomenon to understand discrepancies in the literature about the true nature of nanowires.

doi.org/10.21203/rs....

“And in a field where funding is scarce — and climbing the career ladder is often only possible through a combination of luck, mentorship and networking — the files reveal the ways sexism and misogyny still hold women back.”

“The emails are a reminder to women like Baran that the profession, at its highest levels, still operates under the gaze of men.”

The “boys’ club’ is alive and well. Just ask any woman in academia.

1984 vibes, pepper style

Scaling the 11th Century Start-up, or, Why Universities Break People 53% of academics show signs of depression. This is a role design failure, not a resilience issue: we are managing 21st-century experts with medieval guild structures. To fix the crisis, we must abando...

Interesting reflections on academia, its deficit in psychological safety, unrealistic performance expectations, and the need for transformational leadership to protect focus, interpret external chaos, and foster that missing psychological safety.

www-oms--lab-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.oms-...

Fluorescence micrograph. Emma Miller and Alex Merz, unpublished.

🧵 After years out of the field, I and my lab are again working on bacterial type IV pili. We have just posted our first preprints, and I'm excited to share what we have discovered.

This shows Neisseria gonorrheae bacteria infecting a human epithelical cell. Here, you can see the pili in red.

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Happy Valentine’s Day to all scientists and, most especially, those that share my love for applied and environmental microbiology and our beloved @asm.org journal #AEM ❤️

🌹 Roses are red
🦠 Science is rad
📓 Submit to #AEM
💡 For environmental and applied

Option 2: I hope this email finds you, well or not.

On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I want to take a moment to celebrate the wonderful women in the editorial board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology at @asm.org Journals. It is an honor to work with them.

Onward and upward!

#WomenInScience #AEM #ApplEnvironMicrobiol

Ah, yes, the Spring that is no Spring. My next door neighbor warned me not to celebrate the end of the Michigan winter until after Mother’s Day.

I have entered the phase of Michigan winter when I ask the same question that Bad Bunny asked in ‘Nueva Yol’: “Y este frío, ¿cuándo se acaba?”

We have come such a long way since the early pandemic days…