Dedicated to the ecology and evolutionary biology of the parasites of unicellular organisms (UOPs)
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Bacteriophage Ecology Group (BEG) News | |
Dedicated to the ecology and evolutionary biology of the parasites of unicellular organisms (UOPs) |
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| © Stephen T. Abedon (editor) | ||
| contents | BEG News (023) | top of page | ||
| © Phage et al. | January 1, 2005 issue (volume 23) |
| 1. | editorial | this page |
| 2. | new BEG members | this page |
| 3. | meetings | this page |
| 4. | submissions (a.k.a., stuff to read) | this page |
| 5. | phage image | this page |
| 6. | new publications (abstracts) | this page |
| 7. | acknowledgements | this page |
| 8. | Bacteriophage Ecology Group | elsewhere |
| 10. | mail to |
contents | BEG News (023) | top of page
Phage Books — Phage T-ShirtAbedon, S. T. (2004). BEG News 23 (www.phage.org/bgnws023.htm#editorial).
As I fish around for a theme each quarter for the BEG News editorial, sometimes I get lucky and one falls right into my lap. Such is the case for this issue of BEG News and the theme of phage books. If you are willing to include books on phage display, then a whopping eleven phage-themed books either are currently in preparation, are in production as I write (some still shooting for a 2004 copyright), or were published either this year (2004) or last. Newly published phage books (i.e., 2003 or 2004), according to Amazon.com, include :
If you are willing to include fiction with a sort-of phage theme, then to the above we might add Michael Crichton:
Two additional phage books still scheduled for 2004 publication are:
Four phage books that are currently in production but which are not scheduled for a 2004 publication are:
On the Calendar book (i.e., The Bacteriophages 2/e) I played the role of unofficial associate editor plus am in charge of the associated web site: www.thebacteriophages.org, at which the table of contents and the figures for all 48 chapters may be found. In fact, Steve McQuinn and I (mostly Steve’s doing) have produced a TheBacteriophages.org t-shirt which is available, in limited quantities, just in time for Christmas. To obtain a shirt, go to my newly created PayPal store. If you are interested in getting (or sending) it by Christmas then please get your order to me (via the PayPal store, at least for U.S. orders) by December 10 (2004).
Two more phage books are under contract. The first is a book on methods in phage biology:
The second is an edited volume on phage ecology:
For the latter I will be soliciting chapters very soon, both via personal e-mails to targeted authors and via a mass call for chapter proposals through the BEG mailing lists. The dominant theme of the book will be to review (and, ideally, to extend) phage ecology, particularly from theoretical and laboratory-experimentation perspectives (i.e., rather than from the perspective of what I like to refer to as environmental microbiology). Please be patient, however, in awaiting those solicitations. I’ve been asked to hold back on soliciting authors until I’ve received the contract from Cambridge, and my understanding is that the contract (no joke) currently is in the mail. To these many efforts we can add a list of all of those phage-emphasizing volumes and book-like works (a.k.a., monographs) that have been published over the past century or so, including phage-worker biographies or autobiographies as well as works of fiction that contain a healthy dose of phage. Caution: only a fraction of the information in the following references has been verified through my actually having book in hand. Also, I’ve had to make a number of judgment calls as to what does and what does not constitute a "book". Thus, the following list should be viewed as a work in progress. As always, I look forward to receiving your input into how I might improve or add to the presented material. Please send all corrections, additions, and comments to .
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Editorials should be written on subjects relevant to The Bacteriophage Ecology Group as an organization, to BEG News (either the concept or a given issue of BEG News), or the science of Bacteriophage Ecology. While my assumption is that I will be writing the bulk of these editorials, I wish to encourage as many people as possible to seek to relieve me of this duty, as often as possible. Additionally, I welcome suggestions of topics that may be addressed. Please address all correspondences to or to "Editorials," Bacteriophage Ecology Group News, care of Stephen T. Abedon, Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 1680 University Dr., Mansfield, Ohio 44906. Please send all submissions as Microsoft Word documents, if possible (I'll let you know if I have trouble converting other document formats), and in English.
contents | BEG News (023) | top of page
| name (home page links) |
status | address | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dilip Bandyopadhyay | PI | Biotekk, Mumbai India | |
| interests: | Phage display as applied to cancer research. (contents | BEG members | top of page) | ||
| M. R. Djobedar | PI | no1 2nd floor 15th st., takhti st., fereshte st., valie-asr ave., Tehran 1965836351 IRAN | |
| interests: | The unicellular microalgea Chlorella (vulgaris). (contents | BEG members | top of page) | ||
| Mariam Khvedelidze | PI |
or |
Iv. Javakhishvili State University of Tbilisi, Department of Physics, Chair of Physics of Macromolecules, 3, Chavchavadze Av., 0128, Tbilisi, Rep. of Georgia |
| interests: | Biophysical investigation of the early stage of the infection process in a model system using the fragments of bacterial membrane and bacteriophage; development of physical methods for realization the study of effective substitute for antibiotics; injection of phage DNA into liposomes. (contents | BEG members | top of page) | ||
| Tamaz Mdzinarashvili | PI | Iv. Javakhishvili State University of Tbilisi, Department of Physics, Chair of Physics of Macromolecules, 3, Chavchavadze Av., 0128, Tbilisi, Rep. of Georgia | |
| interests: | DNA organization inside phage, DNA ejection process, early stages of the process of viral infection; thermal properties of receptors for phages and bacterial membrane fragments by means of biophysical methods (calorimetry, viscometry, spectrophotometry). (contents | BEG members | top of page) | ||
| Maite Muniesa | --- | Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 645. 08028 Barcelona. (Spain.) | |
| interests: | Model indicator organisms of faecal contamination in water; environmental (sewage) detection and characterization of bacteria (particularly E. coli O157:H7) and bacteriophages carrying the Stx2 gene; role of phages in spreading virulence factors between bacterial populations and emergence of new pathogenic bacterial strains. (contents | BEG members | top of page) | ||
| B. L. Sarkar | PI | Assistant Director, Vibrio Phage Reference Laboratory, National Institute of Cholera & Enteric Diseases (ICMR), WHO Collaborating Centre for Diarrheal Diseases Research & training, P-33, CIT Road, scheme XM, KOLKATA -700 010, INDIA | |
| interests: | Vibrio phage. (contents | BEG members | top of page) | ||
The BEG members page can be found at www.phage.org/beg_members.htm. There are two ways of "joining" BEG. One, the "traditional" way, is to have your name listed on the web page and on the list server. The second, the "non-traditional" way, is to have your name only listed on the list server. The latter I refer to as "non-members" on that list. Members, e.g., individuals listed on the BEG members list page, should be limited to individuals who are actively involved in science (research, instruction, outreach, industry) and who can serve as a phage ecology resource to interested individuals. If you have an interest in phage ecology but no real expertise in the area, then you should join as a non-member. To join as a member, please contact BEG using the following link: . Include:
Note that it is preferable that you include the full reference, including the abstract, if the reference is not already present in the BEG bibliography. Responsibility of members includes keeping the information listed on the BEG members page up to date including supplying on a reasonably timely basis the full references of your new phage ecology publications. Reprints can also be sent to The Bacteriophage Ecology Group, care of Stephen Abedon, Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 1680 University Dr., Mansfield, Ohio 44906. To join BEG as a non-member, please contact BEG using the following link: http://mansfield.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/beg.
- your name
- your e-mail address
- your snail-mail address
- the URL of your home page (if you have one)
- a statement of whether or not you are the principal investigator
- a statement of your research interests (or phage ecology interests)
- a list of your phage ecology references, if any
contents | BEG News (023) | top of page
ASM Conference on the New Phage Biology |
The BEG Meetings link is now completely defunct. Reminders of certain upcoming meetings will be placed in this section of BEG News. If you know of any meetings that might be of interest to BEG members, or would like to recap a meeting that you've attended, then please send this information for posting to or to "BEG Meetings," Bacteriophage Ecology Group News, care of Stephen T. Abedon, Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 1680 University Dr., Mansfield, Ohio 44906.
contents | BEG News (023) | top of page
Road Trip to Key BiscayneThis is my recollection (what little I have) of the August, 2004, Key Biscayne phage meeting. Day 1 minus 2 (Friday—Mansfield, OH): The hard part, as always, is to pry myself out of the lab. I’m not even sure what I am doing in the lab. I seem to recall assuming, before summer began, that I would spend some time growing up phage stocks and tittering. OK, somehow I neglected to recall the support necessary to keep the lab going: making media, cleaning glassware, autoclaving, autoclaving, autoclaving! Clearly I’m getting a little too old to spend so much time in the lab—and 12 hours a day, day after day, is just ridiculous. So, ignoring my own good advice, and though I really had stopped growing up phage stocks in anticipation of leaving, there I was, still working in the lab. By 7:00 P.M., the Friday before the meeting’s start, I finally pull myself away, shut down shop, mounted what lately is my favorite bicycle, and just then the heavens opened up with a torrential downpour. Half an hour later I’m home, wet, and ready to at least start thinking about packing. At least my poster is dry. Somehow packing is delayed for the next few hours, though the house does get a tad cleaner, and a few piles of possibilities start to rise up in various rooms and on various pieces of furniture. This is the stuff that I at least might be bringing. With great sadness I put away all of the motorcycling gear—I won’t be riding to Florida. Then, crazy me, I also pack away the towels I had brought with me the previous weekend, when I spent 1000 miles in the saddle visiting my old home town for my high school reunion. Apparently the need to dry a saddle should it rain is far greater an instinct than the need to dry my body should I swim. Who can think of everything? Day 1 minus 1 (Saturday—Mansfield, OH): By 8:30 A.M., Saturday morning, I’m packed, gotten in at least a few hours of sleep, have lovingly placed the pitri dishes that won’t be read until at least next Monday into the walk-in cooler, and have even sent off the announcement for a previous (#20) BEG News. And there I am, once again, waiting out a downpour. Forget it! I declare and off I go into the rain during the slightest of breaks. In moments I’m at Paul Hyman’s door, about on time, knocking away. No answer. This is the time to go, and this is the right house. Where is he? Back I go to the car to tidy up and otherwise prepare things for the coming drive. I phone Paul, from right outside his house, and lo, he answers. Almost time to go. Or not. I start to fiddle with the computer while Paul finishes getting ready. Nothing seems to be working for me. He suggests that there is still time to head home and finish things there if that would help. I do, but things don’t work very well there, either. This trip is not off to a good start. Eventually, though, by about 10:00 A.M. or so, only about one-hour late, we’re on our way. Florida here we come. Day 1 minus 1 (Saturday—in transit): As is my custom, I don’t bother to look at a map, preferring to simply point the car in what appears to be an appropriate direction, and then let the details work themselves out. But no, Paul has MapQuest directions, so we’re obligated to do things logically. East on 30, South on 250, and then South on I-77. We’re now on our way.
Everybody in the coming direction has their lights on. Could this be fashion, an indication of lots of construction zones, or, gasp, incredibly intense and long-lived cloud bursts? Naturally it is the latter and we calmly encounter one torrential downpour after another. Meanwhile we pass motorcycle after motorcycle. I’m torn between the certain knowledge that I would be sopping wet and miserable were I riding and, naturally, the certainty that such is but a small price to pay for bliss. We soldier on, though West Virginia, which is absolutely gorgeous with its steep, verdant "mountains," though the climbs take their toll on mileage. In the Prius, at 70 mph (~112 kph), we’re "only" getting about 43 mpg (above 18 kpl). Still, despite how hard the rain keeps on coming, we see motorcycle after motorcycle. Oh well. We make Florida by 2 A.M., perhaps two hours later than we should have due to a slight directional imprecision as I-77 South and 81 North momentarily coincide and then part ways. The latter somehow took us with it. Paul, fortunately, requested a pit stop at a rest area, which I refused, preferring to fuel up the vehicle so long as a stop was necessary. It was only getting back onto the highway, or at least trying to, that I noticed that I-77 had somehow disappeared. An hour later we were back to the scene of the crime, again making our way south. As a quick aside, allow me to "wax" on the virtues of Rain-X®. No matter what your speed, no matter how hard it is raining, we just go and go without using our wipers (much). I now keep a spay bottle of it in the car since when I inevitably leave home without first coating the windshield at least I can do so during gas breaks. (and I’m told it works great on motorcycle wind screens and even helmet face shields!) Day 1 (Sunday—still in transit): Getting back to Florida, there we are at 2:00 A.M. as Paul declares victory and pulls over into the first rest area we see. Earlier I had fueled up on my obligate vegetarian Subway (no cheese, please, and lots of extra jalapenos). That and a few hours of dozing/sleeping and I’m ready to take back the wheel. I make it another 100 or so miles before calling it quits. Amazing what one can accomplish when speed limits are not 55 mph! (and, yes, I do realize that persistent anger over 55 mph speeds limits does date me—yes, I’ve been driving since something like 1978) We spend from about 3:30 A.M. to 6:30 A.M. in a rest area. At some point Paul suggests that he can start driving again, but I waive off his request. I’m actually getting in some sleep and fear that switching out of the driver’s seat will just wake me up. So, at 6:30 A.M., I initiate the next day’s driving, Sunday, a.k.a., day 1 of the meeting, and we continue our trek south, down Florida on I-95. First stop of the morning proper was South Apollo Beach in Canaveral National Seashore (44 East to 1A1 South; take the latter until the latter is no more, park, take your clothes off, and enjoy the sand and surf). Then it is back into the car, a little more rain, and a lot more driving, Miami is getting close. I find it incredible just how not developed Northern Florida actually is. For a guy who got to know Florida in West Palm Beach and other areas relatively South, I was pleasantly surprised by seeing something other than wall-to-wall cars and development, well mixed with an excess of sunshine and humidity. The trip was off to a good start. Let the meeting begin. Day 1 (Sunday—the meeting): The biggest impression, and I do mean big, is that there are far more people here than expected. Something like 350 participants. So many that we needed a second and then a third hotel to accommodate everyone. Kudos indeed to the organizers. The meeting began with a poster session, one that was difficult to do properly since all posters were at least supposed to be up on day one, but only some of those posters were supposed to be manned on day 1 (or womanned as the case may be). I was both elated and burnt out as I was pulled back again and again to my own poster to explain what was going on, even though my poster session wasn’t scheduled, officially, until day 2. Such, I suppose, were the upsides and downsides of putting together a colorful poster with interesting graphics. I had fun. After the poster session we all ate buffet style in the hotel. At first we were supposed to be having the buffet outside, but the rain gods intervened, forcing the hotel to fall back on plan B. A number of attendees were very much aware of the problem but had no idea where the dinner had been moved to. Note to the organizers: Great meal, though a little tough on us vegans. The evening session was an introduction by the two organizers, Ry Young and Sankar Adyha. Due to some sort of transportation delay, Sankar ended up giving his beginning of the session talk at the end of the session, but it worked nonetheless. Now we know more about Ry Young than we had ever hoped to. The first talk was on Seymour Benzer and the fine structure of T4 rII mutants which was followed by an in depth discussion of phage N4. We ended with lots of people ready for bed after a long day of traveling. On to day 2. Day 2 (Monday—the meeting): Is it only Monday? Waking up was not easy, though I don’t recall getting to bed too late on Sunday. I guess the lesson is to not drive to meetings that are 20 hours away (or at least to not show up on the same day that the meeting starts). The morning session was mostly very molecular. I’m struck, though not surprised, by the disconnect between the molecular characterization of phage and the more whole-organismal or ecological phage considerations. Beyond the obvious problem of many talks going overboard in both detail and length, I’m particularly disappointed by the tendency of speakers to target their presentations "traditionally," that is, as though this were a less-general audience. Many in the audience, no doubt, appreciated this targeting. The buzz outside of the lecture hall, however, was that familiar refrain, familiar to me at least, that the talks were just too molecular. Overall, as a person who just can’t stomach too much "all molecular all the time," at least without going quite insane, I will state in no uncertain terms that there is a strong tendency for the molecular to hijack meetings such this. We, as individuals with an interest in more than just the molecular, should fight this emphasis. We should demand that the ecological, evolutionary, and applied aspects of phagology be interspersed with the molecular. By my count, that means that perhaps only one-quarter of the topics covered should primarily emphasize molecular mechanisms. Clearly, on day 2, this ideal was not met.Dinner consisted of Cuban cuisine, obtained at a restaurant just around the corner. Good food, though sadly not great. Everyone, however, had a grand time. Socializing with colleagues, new and old, over food and drink. This is what meetings are all about. Day 3 (Tuesday—the meeting): Why oh why oh why did I stay up until 2:00 A.M. last night? (or was it this morning?) OK, hanging in the hot tub was definitely the thing to do, but somehow sleep depravation doesn’t seem all that compatible with deep, or even shallow scientific thinking. Oh well, such are meetings. If only there was more time. In fact, if only there was more centralization at the meeting, such as common breakfasts and dinners, so that we could easily find each other outside of the sessions. But perhaps I complain too much. Here is quite the opposite: I never knew that Florida, in August, could be so much fun. The sun is hot, but not too hot. The sky is sunny, but not too sunny. And the rainstorms that pass through on a regular basis are awesome. The water of what I assume is the Atlantic Ocean, only a short stroll from the hotel lobby, is warm and smooth and seemingly clean (much more so than the beach on the Jersey shore that I often frequent). Clearly my early impressions of Florida were wrong, forged as they were visiting grandparents in inland West Palm Beach, where naturally sun, surf, and, of course, partying at all hours was little encouraged. What a difference 30 years and just a few miles east (and south) can make!
Meanwhile, I’ve always been biased towards structure talks. I just love 3-D, even when it is faked onto a 2-D medium. Perhaps I just like good pictures (of something other than gels, or DNA or protein sequences), and there is nothing quite like pictures of phage. Anyway, of the morning session Dennis Bamford’s talk on the structure of PRD1’s capsid was simply very, very cool. Those observations lead me to a thought. Some years back I asked a colleague—a very good chemistry instructor—the following question: Why do students think that chemistry is hard? I, personally, had no idea since, frankly, chemistry at the introductory level, of course, isn’t all that hard. Her answer went something like this: Students can only deal with so much abstraction, and chemistry—dealing with all sorts of stuff that one can’t see or, perhaps, easily visualize—is very abstract. So why do I mention this? I suspect that there is only so many gels and sequences that one can view before one’s mind crosses some abstraction threshold. For those individuals who are used to these things, dealing day in and day out with very abstract concepts that one "visualizes" using gels and sequences, I suppose one more gel or sequence is understandable, expected, even welcome. However, for the rest of us, what we really need are less abstract, ideally pretty pictures that summarize data in forms that are quickly, easily, and enjoyably taken in. And we need lots of those pictures. Think of this as meeting halfway between the big and the small picture. Oh yes, and let’s also try to keep the talks reasonably short. And speaking of pretty pictures, the talk on the phage T4 tail structure was, in itself, worth the trip to Florida. Yes, the world now has what appears to be a fairly anatomically correct movie of phage T4 colliding with and then adsorbing to a bacterial cell. Wow! And the anatomic models, with the colored proteins on the carousel movies, in fact, were almost even better. But the best of all was the movie of the long tail fibers triggering the extension of the short tail fibers (with just the baseplate shown). Think spidery space alien extending first one set of claws (the long tail fibers) and then a second set (the short tail fibers). Open and closing. Grabbing the surface. Man o’ man, gotta get a hold of that movie! Day 3 (still Tuesday—the meeting): Like the day before, by the time the afternoon session rolled around I was no longer a happening guy, and so I retired to my room for some much-needed shut eye. Naturally I received a call from one of my students not long after I had fallen asleep. That got me back down to the sessions, at which I lasted only a while before heading off with a collaborator (Larry Goodridge) to talk science. We were hanging in a (thankfully) well roofed "Tiki" hut that doubled as an enclosure around an outdoor bar and tables. At first the drizzle of rain, sneaking through the absent walls, was very pleasant. Eventually, as the rain grew harder, we moved to the center the structure, some 20 feet from the direction of the wind. Even that ended up being not far enough "inside" to keep us dry. The rain came down not so much in sheets as in one big, continuous blanket. There was no way either of us were willing to attempt the 100-150 feet back to the hotel proper, at least with no roof over our heads for much of the way. Instead we hung out and attempted to keep talking science. This grew more and more difficult as the rain came down harder and harder and then even harder still. The people at the bar held up towels to serve as wind/rain breaks. The thunderclaps were all but deafening. And about then a new form of liquid entered the scenario, with the bar spontaneously sprouting cups one-third filled with some sort of yellow liquid. It looked like beer, but it sure wasn’t beer. The bartender lured us over to the bar, explaining to us that our job was to sing "Whoa no, wah dah lahara won't do," bang the bar twice, then down whatever it was in the cup. Huh? Then he turned on the music, really, really loud. At first I didn’t recognize the song. Then slowly it dawned on me that were listening to Steely Dan. Then that crystallized into "My Old School." The bartender started singing. I joined in. When we got to refrain, everybody joined in, banged the bar, and quickly swallowed whatever it was in the plastic cup. It sure wasn’t beer, and I drank it way too fast. That was the idea, right? Steely Dan was followed by the Kinks (Lola, of course) which was followed by "It makes me wanna shout" (or however those lyrics go). The bartender was hilarious, acting out each song in turn. I don’t know, but maybe this wasn’t the first time he had entertained a small crowd during an unexpected (and extended) cloud burst. Returning to the session (which, after a long nap, a long conversation, and lots of dancing at the bar, was stilling going strong), I took in… wait a minute, I can’t even remember what I took in. I finally attempted to take in some posters afterward and, once again, managed to get sucked into my own poster, talking with yet additional interested individuals. That isn’t such a bad thing—in fact, it’s great. But there is no way I’m going to make it through all of these posters. Somehow losing Larry, we then headed off for a Pizza meal, which was quite good, with entertainment consisting of stories of photosynthetic sea slugs (way cool, Liz Summer).
Returning to the hotel around 9:00 P.M., the evening session was still going strong (and how could it not? In phage-meeting hours 9:00 P.M. is equivalent to something like late afternoon). We sat and talked in the lobby until everyone I was with retired up to their rooms. I sat for a while before heading back into the session which, at that point, consisted of a movie overviewing phage l development. Once again I became totally overwhelmed by the insane number of gene-to-gene-to-protein-to-whatever interactions that form the core of phage l development—and this with a video that was most definitely an oversimplification. Finally the session ended and I hung out in the hallway until a group managed to glom around me. We talked for a while, at least until I was tempted back into the hot tub just outside. That was followed by more talking until, at about 1:00 A.M., I crawled into bed to try to get some sleep. Naturally I was way too wired to actually fall asleep, and it didn’t help that, yes, once I had, the phone rang. Only a half a ring, but that was enough to suck me out of dreamland. Oh well. Day 4 (Wednesday—the meeting): The meeting is starting to become routine. Not a routine I can imagine sustaining for more than a few more days, but at least something that I’m not questioning anymore. Must get out of bed. Must shave(!). Must shower. Must eat something for breakfast. Must show up at the morning’s session. Must pay attention. Must stay in the seminar room. Must think about science. Must recall just why it is that I am here. Right on cue I was disappointed with the first session, but not with the second one. This second session, actually, was the first that I had really enjoyed at the meeting. No surprise there, I suppose, since this was the phage ecology session. At lunch, between sessions, I sat with the organizers as we first talked about strategies for assembling an issue of BEG News to archive the meeting [note: don’t hold your collective breaths waiting for that archive], and then how to pull off having the meeting again, including how to improve it. "No more six-dollar beers!" was the resounding cry. We need a central meeting place! and No more separate meals for separate people. Right on schedule, that evening we had a common meal complete with free beer and free wine. And also, let’s not forget, decent pickles (I do like my pickles). The pickles prompted me to eat three broiled-chicken sandwiches (with, of course, plenty of pickles on each). Amazing how little I miss being a vegan when I have no real alternative. Fortunately I had fully fortified myself since, apparently, next on the agenda was dancing the night away. I managed to be coaxed onto the dance floor and then stayed there until the band gave up in exhaustion. Then the bunch of us hung out in the banquet room until all of the tables had been folded up around us. This was followed by walking my good friend Larry home to his hotel, the Ritz Carlton. Man, talk about how the other half live. This place put our resort to total shame. But for twice the price per night per room, well it ought to have. I then managed to stay up, once again, to 2:00 A.M. Actually, to quite a bit past 2:00 A.M., and this time just talking with no hot tub involvement. Meetings, love ‘em! Day 5 (Thursday—the meeting): Considering that I don’t have much memory of having slept last night, I actually feel fairly good. I must have eventually fallen asleep since I recall, once again, being pulled out of a dream by the (dang) alarm clock (alarm clocks—hate ‘em!). I can’t believe that we’re planning on making it a night out yet again this coming evening. And way bummer indeed that most of the people will be gone by then, since the meeting officially ends sometime this afternoon (I have no idea when). At least there is this smidgen of potential that Friday morning I may do some sleeping-in. Lord knows, I’ll need it since we will then be leaving to drive home, back to Ohio! This morning is the first and only that we will be treated to a breakfast by the meeting. For the sake of being social I definitely needed to show up, but given that I no longer had any lactaid pills to deal with my lactose intolerance, it became a question of whether I was willing to eat anything (and never mind how I ever got through lunches with their ubiquitous cheese—this is definitely not a meeting that has coddled to vegans). Oh well, time to get up and start my day… Day 5 (Thursday—post meeting): And then, suddenly, the meeting officially is over. I don’t recall anything about the last morning’s session. Was I even there? Perhaps for some of it, but mostly I recall socializing outside in the lobby. Maybe I really am an extrovert after all. With the meeting over there no longer were any meals available to us so our thoughts tuned to issues of starvation relief. After seemingly pondering on every possible permutation of people, cars, and restaurants, three of us headed just down the block to a lovely Cuban lunch. Post lunch somehow my plan of taking a nap was nixed in favor of more hot tubbing. Hot tubbing was then truncated by yet additional rain (apparently the hotel is of the opinion that outdoor hot tubs and lightning just don’t mix). Off we went to the outdoor bar, with the hope in my mind of a repeat of the previous improvisation by the same bartender, but the rain never got so bad. We then played another permutations game, this time with our sights set on Miami Beach. What a playground, particularly for the young and well proportioned. We eventually found an Italian place (Tutti’s café) on a parallel street to the main drag. Wonderful meal. Wonderful company. Only spoiled slightly (perhaps not at all) but the resulting parking ticket. Oh well. Naturally (how could it be otherwise) four of us finished the evening up in our hotel room, drinking beer, and generally listening to Nicola Walker telling one hilarious story after another. The rest of us tried to add to the conversation, but clearly she is the star. By 1:00, my voice hoarse from laughing and my head holding a perfect beer buzz, the party broke up. The meeting, now unofficially as much as officially, finally, unfortunately, was over. Day 5 plus 1 (Friday—post meeting): I’m elated. I’m totally burnt out. I’m running on empty. I’m completely full. I’m exhausted. My mind is buzzing. There is nothing quite like a phage meeting, seeped as it is in the Cold Spring Harbor tradition of social informality and scientific intensity. I want the meeting to have gone on for another week. Maybe another month. Perhaps the rest of my life. At the same time, productively at least, I don’t think I could have managed another day. The next one, next year, is in the paradise of Evergreen. I will see you all there. We can think profound scientific thoughts, and prance in the rain forest (drinking beer). Ah to be a phage biologist. It doesn’t get any better than this. Epilog
The Return – Day 5 plus 2: I startle awake and look out the window. The world has disappeared into a soft gray cotton candy of dense fog. "Wow" is all my sleep-fuddled mind can think of. I hear Steve chuckling. Suddenly we break out of the cloud into clear air. Dimly I can see hills or mountains ahead and I try to remember where I put my glasses. I squint at the clock but can’t make it out. Finally I recall the correct little bin and restore my vision. It is nearly four A.M. and I have apparently been asleep for almost six hours. "Are we in West Virginia yet?" I am mistakenly assuming that I have slept through another night in the car in a rest area. It turns out we are in Ohio and Steve has driven non-stop, "carefully titrating" his caffeine to stay awake the entire night. The Return – Day 5 plus 1: We finally had gotten ourselves packed up and on the road at 10:00 A.M. Steve driving and me riding. After about an hour-and-a-half we need to fuel up and switch seats. This is the beginning of the pattern we will follow. Major stops only when the car needs fuel. All else is secondary to the trip north. The time passes remarkably quickly between conversation in the car, music and cell phone conversations with my fiancé. Thank goodness for cell phones and traveling on interstates with plenty of towers. Rehashing and recounting the meeting and the miles roll by… Six and a half hours and nearly four hundred miles to the next stop in Georgia. Such is the joy of a car with a hybrid engine and an unreal range. Gas, sandwiches and we are on the road again. Soon it begins to get dark and I begin to doze in the passenger’s seat. I stay awake long enough to navigate Steve past potential detours off the road we want, and then I fall completely asleep. The Return – Day 5 plus 2: After another hour we reach the exit off the interstate onto the slower but more interesting state road. Another stop for fuel and fortified with beef jerky (an excellent road meal, plenty of protein and enough fat and sugar to be satisfying) and we are cruising through rural Ohio. On the trip out we were passing more Amish buggies than I have seen in my entire six months in Ohio. This time there are none, of course (it is too early), but Steve still needs to be alert as our speed rises and falls as we pass through little towns and up and down the hills, in and out of the fog. Finally we reach Wooster, 40 minutes to go! Halfway, Steve finally reaches his limit and I take over for the last little stretch. The sky is lightening in the rearview mirror as we cruise into Mansfield. 19 hours 45 minutes and we are done. Throw the bags out of the car and Steve slips silently away into the morning (that hybrid technology again). I enter the apartment, memories of the meeting, and the drive, already beginning to merge into the past as the new day begins. |
Submissions are non-editorial items describing or highlighting some aspect of bacteriophage ecology including news pieces, historical pieces, reviews, and write-ups of research. Peer review of submissions is possible and a desire for peer review should be indicated. Send all submissions to or to "Submissions", Bacteriophage Ecology Group News, care of Stephen T. Abedon, Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 1680 University Dr., Mansfield, Ohio 44906. Please send all submissions as Microsoft Word documents, if possible (I'll let you know if I have trouble converting any other document formats), and in English.
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Please send any phage images that you would like to present in this section to "Phage Images," The Bacteriophage Ecology Group, care of Stephen T. Abedon, Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 1680 University Dr., Mansfield, Ohio 44906. Alternatively, you may scan the images yourself and send them as an attachment to . Please save all scans in gif or jpg formats and preferably with an image size (in terms of width, height, and kbytes) that will readily fit on a standard web page. No copyrighted material without permission, please!
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New bacteriophage publications are listed below. Each quarter not-yet-listed publications from the previous two years will be presented along with their abstracts. The indicator "???" denotes, of course, that specific information is not yet in the BEG Bibliography. Please help in the compilation of the BEG Bibliography by supplying any updated information, correcting any mistakes, and, of course, e-mailing with the references to your bacteriophage ecology publications, as well as the references to any bacteriophage ecology publications that you know of but which are not yet in the bibliography or to point out references that are not appropriate for the bibliography (send to or to "BEG Bibliography," Bacteriophage Ecology Group News, care of Stephen T. Abedon, Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 1680 University Dr., Mansfield, Ohio 44906). This list is also present with available abstracts at the end of BEG News.
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For your convenience, a list of new publications without associated abstracts (but with links to abstracts) is found above. The list presented below is identical to the above list except that abstracts are included.
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Enormous thanks go to Steve McQuinn for all of his hard work—above and beyond the call of duty—in pulling together the "phage attack" t-shirts. Thanks to Hans Ackermann for his suggestions of additional books for the list and to Larry Goodridge for this quarter’s “phage” image. Thanks also go to Sergei Chumtov and Sheila Tobias for their help in translating book titles (etc.) to English from Russian and from Dutch, respectively.
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