essjay71

there might also be new kinds of life out there, or "in there", that don't fit into our existing classification scheme

Do you, personally (gut-feeling if you like) think this is likely? I have sequence data (published) from a sponge sampled from 2900 m depth and a cluster of sequences neither falls in the domains Archaea or Bacteria. I personally trust the rigourous quality filtering of the data and I have to believe (with healthy scepticism) what I am seeing.

Hello Rob. I'd like to express my admiration for your work in recent years, I've followed it closely and I'm inspired by the way that you and people like Sean Brady have been designing studies on massive scales compared to previously. My questions: 1. My personal 'microbiology' hero is Selman Waksman, who is your favourite? 2. Do you think that the advents of synthetic biology and very precise gene editing tools might make biodiscovery of completely natural genes/geneproducts obsolete?

Do you have a favourite species of bacteria? If yes, why?

What other futile time-wasting activities do you do on Sundays when there aren't any illegal referendums?

Rob, if you had IBD would you accept faecal transplant?