Tiny Living Beings

Did you know that one third of the food we eat is transformed by microbes ? Why did people start eating sauerkraut? Will veggie burgers ever taste better? Is humanity doomed??? We answer these questions and more on this episode of TLB. Bacteria and many fungi may be invisible to the naked eye but their impact is all around us and is especially important when it comes to food. Chef, author, food sc...

What do some amoebozoans and the urban planners of Tokyo have in common? And who is smarter? What even is intelligence? Find out by learning about Physarum polycephalum , a slime mold (aka "slimy guy") you could find on a walk in the woods. Scientist Kyle David talks about the lifestyle and weird features of P. polycephalum and how, even when it's meters long and wrapping itself around trees, it's...

If you have a dog, you'll want to listen to this one! Leptospira is a genus of spirochete bacteria that can infect many different mammals, from rats to rhinos. Veterinarian Kyra Hartog talks about what Leptospira do in nature and why some animals get Leptospirosis and others do not. She also describes symptoms and treatments and gives advice on how to keep your dogs safe! We also go on a rant abou...

Naegleria fowleri is a Percolozoan flagellate protist known as the "brain-eating amoeba". While fatal to humans, this microbe doesn't have a sinister motive. In fact, as Dr. Bromagen explains, infecting humans has no benefit to the amoeba and will be fatal to it as well as the infected human. In this episode we discuss the ecology, natural history, and pathogenicity of Naegleria fowleri and then t...

"The world shimmers, a pointillist landscape made of tiny living beings." -Lynn Margulis Tiny Living Beings is a weekly podcast where listeners get to know a scientist, a weird microorganism they like, and why they think it's interesting. Our planet is full of billions of different microscopic organisms, most of which are still unknown to science. The ones we do know are diverse and strange. Micro...