Microcosm

Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad in a nut) A world of wonders in one closet shut -- Inscription on the Tradescant family tombstone, London There are two things which have deeply terrified me in recent science news. The first, as you may have heard, is that a bumper crop of some 32 "new" planets was discovered by a team of European researchers armed with a spectrograph called HARPS, or High Accuracy Radial velocity Planetary Searcher. The second is that Israeli scientists have made a robot small enough to crawl through human veins. The offending nanobots. Why do these things strike horror in…
tags: Microcosm, microbiology, bacteria, E coli, evolution, Carl Zimmer, book review I lived through Seattle's outbreak of the "killer E. coli strain O157:H7" that charged into the world's consciousness after it mercilessly destroyed the kidneys and other vital organs of hundreds of children and adults who consumed contaminated fast food. During this time, I worked as a lab microbiologist in several human and veterinary hospitals in the Seattle area while I earned my bachelor's degree in microbiology, so I have a strong background in both the practical realities and the scientific lore of…