🦠💊 Are mixtures of commonly used medications that end up in our waterways and natural environments increasing the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria? >>> www.biotechniques.com/microbiology... 🧪

This systematic review explores how socioeconomic status influences the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across high-income nations. Our findings synthesize existing literature and highlight important socioeconomic disparities in the burden of AMR. doi.org/10.1017/ash....

Gain and loss of plasmid-borne antibiotic resistance genes are associated with their chromosomal counterparts and the broader plasmid gene repertoire in Enterobacteriaceae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.17.683045v1

A microscopic tardigrade going for a stroll through some algae.

Credit: Sinclair Stammers

In science we often study parts of a process, different levels of resolution. How do people justify studying the parts, when do you try to link to higher and lower levels and other parts, how should you try to integrate this knowledge. Is there a formal methodology? Does everyone just do something..

The last weeks I've been diving into principles of evolutionary biology and discovering the work of @thomaslenormand.bsky.social and Allen Orr.

Does anyone know about cross resistance evolution mathematical modelling? Similar concepts include cross adaptation OR cross tolerance OR concomitant resistance OR collateral resistance OR cross condition OR cross fitness OR cross sensitivity OR collateral sensitivity OR multiple resistance

One of the hardest things about modeling is knowing you're wrong. The question is how wrong can you be and still provide insights.

Today I attended a symposium on the philosophy of ecology and evolution. 3 concepts were not included:
1. Time scales, rates
2. Randomness
3. Emergent phenomena
I agree that how we define the concepts we use, influences how we think and conduct research and that there's a micro/macro gap.

Happy to have attended @biology25.bsky.social. A very relaxed setting with a vibrant Darwin dinner. Always nice to zoom out and in on different aspects of biological research :)

Is there a point to theoretical work without properly characterising the models? When are models too intractable to provide insights? Do you need to study mathematics and biology extensively to get a foot into this world?

The levels at which biology is studied are under-linked. Or at least not commonly shared in an integrated fashion. Take for example microbiome/microbial community studies: do you start in vitro with two bacteria, in vivo with an entire gut microbiome. When are interactions (ant)agonistic?

When I first started looking into efficacy of anthelmintic drugs, one parasite stood out with low and variable drug efficacy: Trichuris trichiura. Turns out, it's not just one species... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This highlights how understudied this group of neglected tropical diseases are...