Alfred Russel Wallace deserves better.

During 2009, while we were celebrating Charles Darwin and his The origin of species, sadly, little was said about the critical contribution of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) to the development of the theory of evolution. Like Darwin, he was a truly remarkable nineteenth century intellect and polymath and, according to a recent book by Roy Davies (The Darwin conspiracy: origins of a scientific crime), he has a stronger claim to the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection than has Darwin. Here we present a critical comparison between the contributions of the two scientists.

Flow cytometry and other techniques show that Staphylococcus aureus undergoes significant physiological changes in the early stages of surface-attached culture.

The techniques of flow cytometry, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and confocal scanning laser microscopy were used to study the physiology of Staphylococcus aureus in the early stages of surface-attached culture, and to make direct comparisons with planktonic bacteria grown under the same conditions. Attached bacteria growing in nutrient-rich batch culture were found to go through the same growth phases as equivalent planktonic cultures, but with an exponential growth rate of about half that of the planktonic bacteria. Viability of attached bacteria was very high (around 100%) throughout the first 24 h of growth.

The effects of adherence to silicone surfaces on antibiotic susceptibility in Staphylococcus aureus.

Sensitivity of Staphylococcus aureus to the antibiotics tetracycline, benzylpenicillin and vancomycin was found to decrease by 2-10 fold when cells were grown adherent to silicone catheter surfaces. Sensitivity to rifampicin and fusidic acid was not significantly altered in adherent cells. Susceptibility further decreased with increased adherence time prior to antibiotic challenge.