The small things can matter

Abstract

In the context of biology as a whole and of our own personal lives, seemingly small things can prove surprisingly influential. Here, I consider the powerful impact of small organisms—the inhabitants of the microbial world—and the small events that shaped my own development as a scientist. I reflect on the early days of the fields of molecular biology and microbial ecology and my own role in the origin story of what we now call “metagenomics”.