Pacific Standard Debut Cover

George Cowan, Founding President of Santa Fe Institute: 1920-2012

April 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
George Cowan

George Cowan, a Manhattan Project scientist and civic leader who helped pioneer the interdisciplinary investigation of complex adaptive systems and served as founding president of the Santa Fe Institute, died today at the age of 92. As a chemist who also spent nearly 40 years in research and administration at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Cowan was SFI’s president from 1984 to 1991. He also helped establish the Santa Fe Opera and served as longtime chairman of the Los Alamos National Bank. "George Cowan's death is a huge loss to us all," SFI President Jerry Sabloff said in a ... Read More

Smelliot

October 20, 2010 • By •

"Hey, everybody! She's cool with 'Smelliot,'" chimes ne'er-do-well, John Dorian from TV's Scrubs. Everyone knows a Smelliot. Smelliot was the social outcast in grade school burdened by his parents with an unfortunate name and so, in retribution, assumed an arsenal of poor hygiene habits to stave off childhood teasing. Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium, Brevibacterium linens, is the Smelliot of the microbial world. Found in dairy products, fresh and salt water, soil, insects and decaying organic matter, Smelliot can be grown in a broad range of pH levels and salinity. Most know Smelliot ... Read More

Little L

October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

If the probiotic movement is a shiny discotheque, Lactobacillus, or Little L, would be the glamorous VIP whose celebrity moves velvet ropes. Lactobacillus is a gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium native to the mouth and digestive track and found in the production of yogurt, cheese, chocolate, pickles and other fermented foods. In the body, Little L converts lactose and other sugars to lactic acid, which inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria and aids in regulation and digestion. Lactic acid produced from Lactobacillus is also used in detergents as a soap-scum remover and antibacterial ... Read More

Vanilla Ice

October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

Who hasn’t heard of Vanilla Ice? Adapting the rhythmic underpinnings of the Queen/David Bowie duet "Under Pressure," Mr. Ice created a snappy rap song destined for top 40 success, radio replay — and ultimately into the halls of pop-culture irony. Equipped with its own rat-like flagella, Pseudomonas syringae enters its era of underwhelming appreciation. This gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium, named after the lilac tree from which it was first isolated, inhabits plant surfaces as a pathogen. Vanilla Ice excretes a protein toxin that causes water to freeze at high temperatures — making ... Read More

The Vibrio Family

October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

The world is cold, bitter place for the unfortunate few who have not seen Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy. Parodies don’t quite make sense; quotations from the film echo in lost cause; and the color orange carries little significance beyond its failure to rhyme with anything. For those who haven’t absorbed the tribulations of the Corleones, we offer a microbial placeholder: the Vibrio family. This gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium found in sea water carries both a sheathed flagella and a whopping reputation. First isolated from cholera patients, this highly pathogenic ... Read More