Articles from the first PVC workshop

Most of the article from Special Issue of the publication Antonie van Leeuwenhoek dedicated to the first PVC workshop are now available on the pre-publication page of the AvL. Articles are available freely for a short time, so get them while you can. I have just been told that the SI will be freely available for the rest of the year. That is a very good news. Summary of the workshop and of the articles in the SI can be found in Introduction article by Devos, Jogler and Fuerst. The whole special issue is in production phase and should be available soon. Stay tuned.

First book on PVC published

The first book entirely dedicated to Planctomycetes bacteria is eventually out. It is published by Springer and is entitled Planctomycetes: Cell Structure, Origins and Biology, Editor: Fuerst JA. It is the first book on planctomycetes focused on their cell biology. It provides details on the significant ecology and enviromental significance of planctomycetes. And it is valuable for those in the field of planctomycetology and those entering it for the first time. Here is the introduction:

"Planctomycetes, and their relatives within the PVC superphylum of domain Bacteria, including verrucomicrobia and chlamydia, challenge our classical concept of the bacterium and its modes of life and provide new experimental models for exploring evolutionary cell biology and the full diversity of how living cells can be organized internally. Unique among Bacteria they include species possessing cells with intracellular membrane-bounded compartments and a peptidoglycan-less cell wall, and bacteria such as the anammox organisms performing unique anaerobic ammonium oxidation significant for global nitrogen cycle. The book introduces these fascinating and important bacteria and deals in detail with their unusual structure, physiology, genomics and evolutionary significance. It is a definitive summary of our recent knowledge of this important distinctive group of bacteria, microorganisms which challenge our very concept of the bacterium."

The book is limited to Planctomycetes, but there is also some considerations of the other PVC members, mainly the Verrucomicrobia and Chlamydiae.

ISBN 978-1-62703-502-6

Darwin vs Lamarck

So, reading this book about the process of insight, an important issue, for scientist, I found plenty of trick to favor the development of it. But this led me to wonder, how do you recognize the right insight?

Consider Darwin and Lamarck. Sure Lamarck also had his 'Eureka' moment. But it was a wrong Eureka. However, because it made so much sense, he just followed and pushed his idea for most of his life, and is now recognized as an important contributor to evolutionary theory albeit a wrong one. So, how do you recognize good intuition from wrong intuition? In the case of Darwin vs Lamarck, it must be very difficult, even impossible for Lamarck at the time to recognize, even less admit, that he was wrong, partly because the idea was so good, it made so much sense. It is easy for us now a posteriori to say that Lamarck was wrong but at the time, with the knowledge and tools they had, it sure sounded like a good idea, and he had many followers.

I guess a few clues could have come from evaluating and pushing his theory to the limit. By example, Lamarck did not explain the origin of new species. An all important point in evolution. Or may be I should say didn't explain it as convincingly as Darwin's. I guess that a more critical evaluation of his own theory might have helped Lamarck to realize his mistake, eg there is no 'improvement' of the race in animal breeding, so well explained by Darwin, it is selection, not adaptation.

Can 'Eureka' be learned?

Was just reading a Science book review entitled 'Facilitating "A-ha!" moments'. The book is about how to expand creativity, apparently loaded with anecdotes and 'tricks' to facilitate it. Interesting example includes the fact that building planners locate bathrooms in places that force people that are not used to meet to come together to the same place. Apparently, this has been shown to increase a company's creativity. I have been told that this kind of planning to force people to meet is increasingly taken into account into scientific buildings eg at the Janelia Farm campus, VA. More importantly, there is apparently a call to change our education system in order to promote creativity in children. The book is apparently great fun. It is still not clear if reading it would improve your creativity, but it can certainly not hurt. I was not convince if I should buy it or not, but the call to change education to promote creativity got me. I will buy it and tell you more about it soon.


Got it, very nice book. Had trouble to put it down. Lots of interesting stuff, some you know, some you guessed and some you never thought about. By example there is an important distinction between insights and sustained focused attention during long period of intensive work. Coffee and other drugs might help with the later, but not with the former.