This Week in Microbiology

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Cliff Mintz, Michael Schmidt, and Stanley Maloy

I’m pleased to announce the launch today of This Week in Microbiology, a podcast that explores unseen life on Earth. As with our other podcasts This Week in Virology (TWiV) and This Week in Parasitism (TWiP), we will strive to produce an informal yet informative conversation about microbes which is accessible to everyone, no matter what their science background.

As a science Professor at Columbia University, I have spent my academic career directing a research laboratory focused on viruses. My enthusiasm for teaching inspired me to reach beyond the classroom using new media. TWiM is for everyone who wants to learn about the science of microbiology in a casual way.

While there are no exams or pop quizzes, TWiM does encourage interaction with the audience via comments on specific episodes (see below) and email. Listeners can also use MicrobeWorld to suggest topics for the show by submitting articles or papers to the site and tagging them with twim.

On episode #1 of This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Cliff, Michael, and Stan discuss transfer of DNA from a human host to a bacterial pathogen, and the ability of dry copper to kill bacteria on contact.

[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/twimshow/TWiM_1_-_Neisseria_LINEs_up.mp3 | titles=TWiM 1]

Download TWiM #1 (58 MB .mp3, 63 minutes). To download, right-click or control-click on the link, then select save as.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) at iTunes, the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, or by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld App.

Links for this episode:

• Horizontal gene transfer from a human host to a bacterial pathogen
• LINE = Long INterspersed Element
• Human DNA in Bacterial Genomes?
• Dry copper kills bacteria on contact
• Microbe by Elio Schaecter
• Small Things Considered – Microbiology blog

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twim@microbe.tv or leave voicemail at 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twim.