Comments on: Microcosm Week: How E. coli Sees The Future http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/ A blog about life, past and future. Written by DISCOVER contributing editor and columnist Carl Zimmer. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:52:02 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Julie Simon Lakehomer http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-19781 Julie Simon Lakehomer Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:35:02 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/#comment-19781 Great article; genes can be clairvoyant! I'm writing a popular science book called "Crazy for Heredity," about genetics researchers from past to present, and one of my chapters is about Jacques Monod and the discovery of the off-on switch for the lactose-digesting genes. It's great that the adventure continues! Great article; genes can be clairvoyant! I’m writing a popular science book called “Crazy for Heredity,” about genetics researchers from past to present, and one of my chapters is about Jacques Monod and the discovery of the off-on switch for the lactose-digesting genes. It’s great that the adventure continues!

]]> By: 10 things to learn on July 17th | Nilesh Babu http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-19775 10 things to learn on July 17th | Nilesh Babu Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:09:17 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/#comment-19775 [...] Microcosm Week: How E. coli Sees The Future | The Loom | Discover Magazine In my book Microcosm, I took great pleasure in all the things that something as tiny as E. coli can do. It can survive in frozen soils and stomach acid. It can can build intricate tails which it can then spin hundreds of times a second in order to swim. It can navigate away from the bad and towards the good. It can protect itself from overheating by making just enough protective proteins it needs, with thermostat-like precision. It can survive starvation by folding its DNA into a crystalline sandwich and powering down for months, even years in some cases. It can build microbial cities out of goo, and even commit suicide to help its fellow E. coli survive. [...] [...] Microcosm Week: How E. coli Sees The Future | The Loom | Discover Magazine In my book Microcosm, I took great pleasure in all the things that something as tiny as E. coli can do. It can survive in frozen soils and stomach acid. It can can build intricate tails which it can then spin hundreds of times a second in order to swim. It can navigate away from the bad and towards the good. It can protect itself from overheating by making just enough protective proteins it needs, with thermostat-like precision. It can survive starvation by folding its DNA into a crystalline sandwich and powering down for months, even years in some cases. It can build microbial cities out of goo, and even commit suicide to help its fellow E. coli survive. [...]

]]> By: johnk http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-19768 johnk Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:06:58 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/#comment-19768 The analogy seems to work the other way around. Learning is the evolution (of behavior) that occurs within a lifetime. In both formulations, the mechanisms are that evolution's "survival" is replaced with learning's "reinforcement". The analogy seems to work the other way around.

Learning is the evolution (of behavior) that occurs within a lifetime.

In both formulations, the mechanisms are that evolution’s “survival” is replaced with learning’s “reinforcement”.

]]> By: TomJoe http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-19766 TomJoe Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:25:13 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/#comment-19766 Listo, there are a number of ways scientists can watch genes switching on and off. Sometimes they can use reporters (that make a fluorescent protein for example - so the cell will "glow" when the gene is activated) to measure gene activity in real time, or they can measure the level of gene activity using molecular methods such as "real time PCR". Listo, there are a number of ways scientists can watch genes switching on and off. Sometimes they can use reporters (that make a fluorescent protein for example – so the cell will “glow” when the gene is activated) to measure gene activity in real time, or they can measure the level of gene activity using molecular methods such as “real time PCR”.

]]> By: Listo http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-19761 Listo Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:57:39 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/07/15/microcosm-week-how-e-coli-sees-the-future/#comment-19761 What an amazing read! I don't know if it's too complex to explain (or just too stupid of a question), but I wonder how scientists "watch" genes switching on and off? It would seem like studying genes would be a more arduous process than how it appears in this post. Edit: Guess I'll have to pick up the book ;) What an amazing read! I don’t know if it’s too complex to explain (or just too stupid of a question), but I wonder how scientists “watch” genes switching on and off? It would seem like studying genes would be a more arduous process than how it appears in this post.

Edit: Guess I’ll have to pick up the book ;)

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