New Website, New Publications.

At long last, we have done a make-over of our website.  In terms of scientific output, since the Science paper last mentioned as news nearly a year ago, we’ve had publications in Cell (a Preview about a great paper from the group of Sander Tans), Cell Reports (David Chou uncovered a remarkable diversity of genetic pathways to parallel optimization of gene expression), and two papers in PLoS Genetics (one led by Nigel Delaney describing the incredibly fast evolution of Mycoplasma following a host shift, and a second by Miki Lee describing the repeated, advantageous loss of massive chunks of the Methylobacterium genome).  Furthermore, the Cell Reports paper was featured in a podcast by Cell Press (starting ~18 minutes in).  Finally, Chris conceived of and hosted a rather entertaining outreach activity: a Microbial Sciences Initiative-hosted seminar/beer tasting by Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, DE.  Thanks to the hard work of Karen Lachmayr in organizing it for MSI, Sam’s presentation and kegs of four outstanding beers that were served to 300 people in the packed house it was a most excellent evening in celebration of the powers of microbes.  The video is available online; beer must be provided separately.