Waste-to-Electricity?

Many of us don’t spend a lot of time pondering wastewater treatment unless we absolutely have to.  However, we may need to start rethinking this dirty job.   In the United States wastewater treatment is a multi-billion dollar industry that is facing major challenges in the...

300 Papers

Congratulations to Ken Nealson for publishing his 300th paper! Ken has been a driving force in microbiology for 40 years having published several seminal papers in microbial ecology. In the 1980s he helped to pioneer the field of geobiology and discovered bacteria that thrive on metal. Dr....

2010 Internship Program Ready to Go

Are you thinking about summer already? We are!! The 2010 Summer Internship Program is open to accept applications. Last year, we received and reviewed over 300 applications from all over the US and the world for our summer program. Interns were selected to work in most of the research groups...

Scientist Spotlight: Karen Nelson

Karen’s interest in the natural world was sparked at a young age. Born in Jamaica, she enjoyed the outdoors and wonders of nature. Karen was drawn to animals and wanted to become a veterinarian, but after taking some human and animal nutrition courses in college she was hooked on...

Antarctic Epiblog: Leaving McMurdo

Ice formation outside McMurdo Station After we took our samples out at the ice edge, we returned to McMurdo Station for several intense days of demobilization. We had to return all of the large drills, power equipment and camping gear, and spent a considerable time preparing our...

Station IV: The Ice Edge

Our last station in our Ross Sea transect was out at the ice edge, about two miles north of our previous station, Station III. We were interested to see how plankton in the open polynya were different from the phytoplankton we isolated from areas locked in sea-ice. Polynyas are ice-free areas...

Station III: approaching the ice edge

As we were finishing up our work at Station II, we called MacOps, the radio command center for McMurdo Station, and got a 24 hour weather update: a high to the north of Ross Island was blocking a storm in the south, and we were caught in the middle. The prediction: snow, and lots of it. We had...

Station II, Inaccessible Island

The second storm of our trip hit us while we were packing up Station I for a return to McMurdo. The winds began gusting over 50 miles per hour, and the visibility dropped to near zero. We had already packed up camp, but the orders came in over the radio that Condition 1 had been imposed on the...

Kudos to Ken!

JCVI Professor, Kenneth Nealson, has been selected by the American Society of Microbiology to receive an award that recognizes distinguished accomplishments in interdisciplinary research and training in microbiology. The 2010 David C. White Research and Mentoring Award will be awarded to Ken...

S. pneumoniae sticks to dying lung cells, worsening secondary infection following flu

Sailing the Seas in Search of Microbes

Projects aimed at collecting big data about the ocean’s tiniest life forms continue to expand our view of the seas.

What the Public Should Not Know

J. Craig Venter, PhD, argues scientists have “a moral obligation to communicate what they're doing to the public,” and that more studies deserve greater public criticism.

Scientists coax cells with the world’s smallest genomes to reproduce normally

The discovery could sharpen scientists’ understanding of which functions are crucial for normal cells and what the many mysterious genes in these organisms are doing

San Diego arts, health, science and youth groups to share $71M from Prebys Foundation

The J. Craig Venter Institute is the recipient of three awards totaling more than $1.5M to study SARS-CoV-2 and heart disease

Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the First Publication of the Human Genome

A new wave of research is needed to make ample use of humanity’s “most wondrous map”

Scientists rush to determine if mutant strain of coronavirus will deepen pandemic

U.S. researchers have been slow to perform the genetic sequencing that will help clarify the situation

After saving countless lives, Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith retires as his own health falters

He has been a fixture in San Diego science for decades