Science
It’s all around us: Three scientists on how the microbiome shapes our world
Plus: why you shouldn’t give probiotics to your dog.
Continue reading
Jonathan Eisen
Biologist
Jonathan Eisen studies the ecology and evolution of microbial communities — and their co-evolution with their hosts.
Why you should listen
Research in Jonathan Eisen's lab focuses on the “phylogenomics of novelty” in microbes. Among their major research themes are:
• the genomic basis for the origin and evolution of new functions
• the ecology and evolution of microbial communities
• the co-evolution of microbes and their carrying vessels (i.e., hosts)
• variation in “evolvability”
• the development of phylogeny driven computational tools to analyze genomic and metagenomic sequence data.
Eisen is also a strong proponent of the Open Access movement in scientific publishing and is Academic Editor in Chief of PLoS Biology. Dr. Eisen is also an active and award-winning science blogger on The Tree of Life. For recent news see @phylogenomics.
Jonathan Eisen’s TED talk
More news and ideas from Jonathan Eisen
Health
6 great things microbes do for us
The word ‘microbe’ sounds scary — we associate them with the flu, ebola, flesh-eating disease, you name it. But microbiologist Dr. Jonathan Eisen has given an illuminating TEDTalk that will make you put down the hand sanitizer. As Eisen explains, “We are covered in a cloud of microbes and these microbes actually do us good […]
Continue reading