Issue | June 2019 | Living with Bacteria | The Scientist Magazine®

Features

Could Tolerating Disease Be Better than Fighting It?

Ashley Yeager | Jun 1, 2019 | 10+ min read

Quieting immune attacks against pathogens and even providing nutrients to the invaders could improve health, according to a new line of research.

Do Commensal Microbes Stoke the Fire of Autoimmunity?

Amanda B. Keener | Jun 1, 2019 | 10+ min read

Molecules produced by resident bacteria and their hosts may signal immune cells to attack the body’s own tissues.

Quantum Biology May Help Solve Some of Life’s Greatest Mysteries

Catherine Offord | Jun 1, 2019 | 10+ min read

From the remarkable speed of enzyme-catalyzed reactions to the workings of the human brain, numerous biological puzzles are now being explored for evidence of quantum effects.

Contributors

Meet some of the people featured in the June 2019 issue of The Scientist.

Editorial

Belief in the Unseen

Science doesn’t require faith, but fostering trust in its practitioners can help the public move past unfounded doubts.

Speaking of Science

Ten Minute Sabbatical

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.

Notebook

In a Warming Climate, Seaweed’s Microbiome May Mediate Disease

Kelp in warm, acidified waters develop blistered fronds—and the composition of microbial communities could help explain why, a study suggests.

Browsing Deer Affect How A Forest Sounds

Changes in the auditory environment as a result of herbivory could influence how animals communicate, and may have implications for sound-based monitoring of species.

Could Manipulating the Microbiome of Artworks Prevent Their Decay?

Treating the microbial community residing on a painting with probiotics may offer a way to stave off biodegradation, a study suggests.

The Hunt for Electrically Active Microbes

A new portable instrument could help to lure useful bugs in from the wild.

Modus Operandi

Intracellular Magnetic Manipulations

Optimized tweezers enable precise 3-D manipulations of a cell’s organelles.

Critic at Large

Opinion: New Repository Will Hold the World’s Microbial Riches

The Microbiota Vault takes a holistic approach to preserving Earth’s microscopic diversity.

The Literature

How Bacteria “Walk” Across a Surface

Scientists identify the coordinated sequence of pili movements that Pseudomonas aeruginosa use to move.

Fruit Flies Hide Their Eggs in Plain View

Chemical cues help Drosophila mask their eggs from predators.

Mouse Diets Affect How Gut Bacteria Interact with T Cells

An experiment delves into how the microbiome shapes immunity.

Profile

Microbe Miner: A Profile of Rob Knight

Developing computational tools to analyze the reams of microbial sequencing data his lab generates, the UC San Diego microbiologist is a pioneer of microbiome research.

Scientist to Watch

Otto Cordero Studies Bacteria in the Wild

The MIT associate professor wants to understand microbial communities in their ecological context.

Lab Tools

Drug Discovery Techniques Open the Door to RNA-targeted Drugs

New ways to search for druggable RNAs and matching small molecules

Careers

Making STEM Education More Welcoming to Underrepresented Minorities

Diversity programs are shifting their focus from just providing academic support to creating a learning environment that is more inclusive of people of different backgrounds.