In article <3lkv0l$kfa at mark.ucdavis.edu> ez044157 at dale.ucdavis.edu (Mark Fuller) writes:
>Mitton:
>[chomp]
>>The way I see it, as a microbial ecologist, the biggest questions to be
>asked in microbiology are pertaining to the ecology of microbes. We have
>only been able to isolate and grow an estimated 0.1-1% of ALL bacteria
>thought to exists. But beyond merely studying them in the lab, we need
>to more about how these little critters survive in the environment....
[chomp]
>>I'd say any area of general microbial ecology will lead you into the BIG
>questions that need to be answered.
>>Sincerely,
>>Mark E. Fuller
>
I have often wondered how the folk who model global warming and so on deal
with this. How *do* they parametrise CO2 fluxes to and from e.g. the ocean
when, as Mark says, 99-99.9% of the bugs don't plate out? Anyone know?
I'd also include 'people' in the definition of the environment - we really
seem to have very little good knowledge about e.g. factors that trigger
'reinfection' by bugs that didn't plate out but were still inside us after
a treatment with antibiotics. Mycobacteria (TB) are renowned for this, but
I understand that most other bugs can probably do it too.
IMHO, the BIG question in (micro)biology generally is how the inside of the
cell is organised - too much of our thinking and modelling is still such
that the implicit view is the 'bag-of-enzymes', which it definitely aint.
Douglas.
