😱 “We now face an army of COVID Viruses,” proclaims a recent article from The Tyee. “The pandemic has not ended. It is evolving, with big implications.”

I have some opinions on this topic. These are them.
#scicomm #covid #sarscov2 #microbialmondays

https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/sars-cov-2-an-army-or-a-single-violin

🌱 Eat your greens 🥦
You may have heard it's healthy to eat plants - but did you know that the #bacteria living within your intestines are part of the reason why broccoli is a healthier choice than bologna? Find out how it works on this week's #microbialmondays blog 👇
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/multifunctional-microbe-manure

For centuries, tattoo artists have piggy-backed on a protective immune mechanism to inkily immortalise their art on the skin of their fellow humans. Read how it works in this week's #microbialmondays blog! 👇

https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/ink-eaters

#scicomm #tattoos

Day 22 of #MicrobialMondays advent is about a Ukrainian man who, as his mentor put it, "found a new way of life": Sergei Winogradsky, the man who imagined #ecosystems.
#scicomm #microbes
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/the-man-who-imagined-ecosystems

A few weeks ago I gave a workshop on #scicomm @ the @UniUtrecht Infection & Immunity Master symposium. At one point I mentioned 'The Biological Chernobyl'... but nobody had heard of it! So, here's an article on it, for day 21 of #MicrobialMondays advent👇
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/the-biological-chernobyl

You might know what happens if you give a mouse a cookie, but what about if you give a bacterium a plasmid? Day 20 of #MicrobialMondays advent is about how we get #bacteria to do some of the "heavy lifting" for us in the lab.
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/when-you-give-a-bacterium-a-plasmid
#Scicomm #virus

First it was #RSV, and now it's #StrepA. What the heck is going on this winter?
I don't have all the answers, but I do have a fairly balanced explanation for you here, on day 19 of #MicrobialMondays advent 👇
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/the-season-of-streptococcus
#scicomm

I'm looking forward to watching #HomeAlone over Christmas while surrounded by friends and family- which reminded me that bacteria also like to be surrounded by their buddies 🥰 Read more on Day 18 of #MicrobialMondays advent 👉 https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/not-home-alone-bacterial-biofilms
#scicomm #bacteria

Day 17 of #MicrobialMondays advent is about outside-the-box ways we can treat #COVID19. I made this video more than a year ago but we just submitted our paper on this topic! Wish us luck🤞#autophagy #scicomm #virus
https://youtu.be/v31DoQ37-JY

Did you like the last #Thor movie? I turned it off after 20 minutes 🙃

But whether you liked it or not, perhaps you'll like reading about this COVID drug with a Thor-inspired name for #MicrobialMondays advent day 16 👇
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/hammering-sars

#COVID #virus #Marvel #scicomm

I distinctly remember enjoying doing the background reading for this #blog from behind the flow cytometer. Multitasking!

Day 15 of #MicrobialMondays advent is on forest #fungi and the dance of carbon sequestration 🌲🍄
#scicomm
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/forest-fungi-and-the-dance-of-carbon-sequestration

Day 14 of #MicrobialMondays advent was one of many blogs written in answer to one of many great #science questions from my former neighbor and to this day friend, Michael 😊
The best part of #scicomm is the people it brings you (back) in touch with.

https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/nuns-and-natural-killers

For Day 13 of #MicrobialMondays advent, I'm sharing the very first blog article I ever wrote, in 2017: "Why am I always sick in the winter?" I remember equally mixed feelings of pride and terror as I pressed 'publish'. But you have to start somewhere!

#scicomm #virus

https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/2017/11/13/why-am-i-always-sick-in-the-winter

"A rose may still smell like a rose, but Juliet missed the point. The utility of taxonomic nomenclature lies in the wealth of biological information that it conveys." - Lynn J. Rothschild

In today's throwback #MicrobialMondays article for day 12 of our digital advent calendar, we're looking into the tricky-to-understand microbial group of protists, and diving into why we bother to categorize microbes at all.

https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/what-s-in-a-name
#scicomm #protists #names #biology

Day 11 of #MicrobialMondays aren't & I've just passed through Frankfurt - which reminded me of "A previous plague, another #outbreak", that happened in the 1960s, in Frankfurt, Belgrade, & the city the responsible #virus was later named after: Marburg 👉https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/a-previous-plague-another-outbreak

I had my first #Christmas cookie of the season yesterday, which reminded me of this piece I wrote on how #viruses are also covered with sugar 🍬 Find out more here, on day 10 of #MicrobialMondays advent 👀 https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/a-shield-of-sugar
#scicomm #sugar #virus

Did you know that at one point in history, malaria (yes, LIVE malaria!) was used to treat syphilis? It sounds made up, but this type of therapy even won a 1927 Nobel Prize. Day 9 of #MicrobialMondays advent presents the whole story 👇
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/fever-dreams
#scicomm #malaria

Ever heard of glow-in-the-dark squid? Yes they really do exist, and it is all thanks to #microbes! Day 8 of #MicrobialMondays advent explains 🦑👀 https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/2018/03/05/microbial-buddies-part-i
#scicomm #bacteria #science #biology

These days you hear a lot about "bad bugs" that infect us, but also about the "good bugs" that we need to stay healthy. Day 7 of #MicrobialMondays advent is a dose of microbial philosophy: what makes a #microbe good or bad?
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/2017/12/25/bacterial-philosophy-what-does-it-mean-to-be-good-or-bad
#scicomm #bacteria

Day 6 of #MicrobialMondays advent is for #sourdough 🍞
https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/2019/05/20/bubble-bubble-toil-and-double
#Fermentation