Animalcules Volume 1, Issue 11

Welcome to the tiniest of blog carnivals about the tiniest creatures.

Without much ado, we start off with...sex (pretend you can see me moving my eyebrows up and down) among conjugating paramecia over at A Blog Around the Clock.

Next is a post at Aetiology about the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes entitled The evolutionary advantage of spontaneous abortion. Don't let the Republicans hear that one.

Then, there is MicrobiologyBytes asking "how many bugs are there out there?" The answer is 2,348,175.

Moving along, we get to everyone's favorite disease the Black Death or the bubonic plague. This 2003 article in the New Scientist tackles another question: was the plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis or not?

On a lighter note, The World's Fair is featuring nooses, I mean, ties decorated with the SARS virus or Mad Cow prions. Perfect for your neck.

Finally, we have another entry from A Blog around the Clock. And this one is about P-P-P-P-P-Pilobolus, a fungus. A fungus? That's not an animalcule!

Wait, there is one more! We started off with paramecium and so, now we end with paramecium in this post from your host about an old photo of some ciliates.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to visit the next issue of Animalcules on 14 September at Viva la evolucion!