Dr. Christopher Garner is a microbiologist and assistant professor of biology at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma City, OK. He is also the Editor-in-Cheif of The Living Record.
Perspectives & Opinions
Let's sit back and think about what a preprint can really be for. A scientific paper is an act (and arguably an art) of compression. Sometimes, a few paragraphs of a methods may represent months spent ordering materials, optimizing protocols, growing organisms, collecting samples, troubleshooting equipment, and repeating
The Margins
Aeonophiles: Can microbes live for a million years? When most non-microbiologists picture microbes, they picture disease causing bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, and similar organisms. These familiar microbes have helped create the impression that bacterial life moves fast. Under ideal laboratory conditions, some bacterial populations
News & Updates
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Utebzi, a new oral antibiotic for complicated urinary tract infections, including pyelonephritis, a type of kidney infection. This drug is the first oral carbapenem approved for this use, giving physicians a new option in a class of antibiotics often reserved for
Perspectives & Opinions
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of traveling to Costa Rica to teach a module for a study abroad program. We hiked to spectacular places, practiced scientific methods in the field, and studied an ecosystem whose complexity was immediately visible but never fully graspable. For a brief period,
The Margins
June 2026 - Magnetotactic Bacteria - The microbes with internal compasses Some organisms are impressive because they run fast, fly high, or survive terrible conditions. Magnetotactic bacteria are impressive because they build compasses inside their own cells. These bacteria produce tiny magnetic structures called magnetosomes: membrane-bound crystals of magnetic iron minerals,
Reviews
The strange, plausible, overmarketed science of far-infrared clothing.
Explainers
As our first set of content is in the works, this post will give an overview of the site. We publish science writing for readers who want clarity, depth, and a more thoughtful kind of reading experience. Too much science coverage is presented as noise: crowded pages, breathless framing, distractions