[{"content":"Occasional posts on research, methods, fieldwork, and open hardware.\n","date":"20 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Blog","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"20 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/meta/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Meta","type":"tags"},{"content":" Exploring the physiology, cellular biology, and ultrastructure of uncultured microorganisms using next-generation techniques to connect single-cell processes to ecosystem-scale impacts. Research → Thiovulum motility, microbial dark matter, ultrastructure, and ecophysiology of uncultured sulfur-oxidizing bacteria.\nProjects → DIY scientific instruments — 3D-printed micromanipulators, Raspberry Pi lab tools, custom microscopy.\nMicroelectronics → Arduino and Raspberry Pi builds: environmental sensors, motion control, embedded data acquisition.\nPublications → Peer-reviewed work on uncultured microbes, single-cell techniques, and metabolic flux.\nBlog → Field notes, methods, and occasional thoughts on microbiology and open hardware.\nAbout → Who I am, CV, and how to get in touch.\n","date":"20 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Microbial Quanta","summary":"","title":"Microbial Quanta","type":"page"},{"content":"","date":"20 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":"This is the first post on Microbial Quanta — a research site, project portfolio, and occasional blog about microbiology and the instruments I build to study it.\nThe site has a few sections:\nResearch — the questions I\u0026rsquo;m working on Projects — DIY scientific instruments with full build files Microelectronics — Arduino and Raspberry Pi work Publications — peer-reviewed papers About — who I am and how to reach me Everything is open. STL files, OpenSCAD source, firmware, analysis code — all downloadable, all reusable. If you build something based on what\u0026rsquo;s here, I\u0026rsquo;d love to hear about it.\nSubscribe via RSS for new posts.\n","date":"20 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/welcome/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Welcome to Microbial Quanta","type":"blog"},{"content":"A fully 3D-printable micromanipulator for picking individual cells under an inverted microscope. Designed for use with pulled-glass capillaries; resolution ~5 μm on the fine axes.\nStatus: working prototype, v0.3. Feedback welcome via GitHub issues.\nBuild files # micromanipulator-v0.3.stl — main body, single file micromanipulator.scad — OpenSCAD source (parametric) firmware/ — Arduino sketch for joystick control Interactive 3D preview # Drop the STL into static/files/ in the repo, then this shortcode renders an interactive viewer:\n{{\u0026lt; stl-viewer src=\u0026#34;/files/micromanipulator-v0.3.stl\u0026#34; \u0026gt;}} Parts list # Part Source Qty Notes NEMA 8 stepper Pololu / OSH 3 One per axis A4988 driver Pololu 3 Or DRV8825 Arduino Nano many 1 Any AVR-based variant Joystick module Adafruit 1 2-axis + button M3 hardware kit McMaster — Mostly 8 mm and 12 mm Pulled glass capillary World Precision as needed 1.0 mm OD borosilicate Build notes # Print body parts in PETG for stiffness; ABS works but warps. Use 100% infill on the carriage parts — flex matters. The joystick mapping in the firmware uses an exponential curve so coarse moves feel responsive and fine moves stay precise.\n// excerpt from joystick.ino int mapExp(int raw, int deadzone, int maxStep) { int centered = raw - 512; if (abs(centered) \u0026lt; deadzone) return 0; float n = (float)(abs(centered) - deadzone) / (512 - deadzone); int step = (int)(pow(n, 2.5) * maxStep); return centered \u0026lt; 0 ? -step : step; } Lessons learned # The first version used cantilevered axes — flex was unusable above 200× magnification. Cross-bracing solved it. PLA creeps under preload from the glass capillary holder. Switch materials. Adding a 30 mm working-distance offset to the capillary mount means you can swap out the glass without re-zeroing. Future improvements # Optical encoders for closed-loop control Manual fine-adjust knobs as backup when the microcontroller is being reflashed Compatibility plate for Nikon Ti and Olympus IX stages ","date":"15 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/projects/example-micromanipulator/","section":"Projects","summary":"","title":"3D-printed micromanipulator","type":"projects"},{"content":"","date":"15 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/3d-printing/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"3d-Printing","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"15 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/instrumentation/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Instrumentation","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/instruments/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Instruments","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"15 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/microscopy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Microscopy","type":"tags"},{"content":"Open-source builds for microbiology — instruments, fixtures, and software I\u0026rsquo;ve designed for my own work and shared so others can adapt them. Each project page includes the build guide, downloadable files (STL, OpenSCAD, code, schematics), and a parts list.\n","date":"15 May 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/projects/","section":"Projects","summary":"","title":"Projects","type":"projects"},{"content":"","date":"10 April 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/diy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Diy","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"10 April 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/embedded/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Embedded","type":"categories"},{"content":"Embedded systems for scientific work — environmental sensors, data loggers, motion control, and lab-side automation. Source files and schematics live alongside each build.\n","date":"10 April 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/microelectronics/","section":"Microelectronics","summary":"","title":"Microelectronics","type":"microelectronics"},{"content":"","date":"10 April 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/thermal/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Thermal","type":"tags"},{"content":"Working notes from helping a colleague (Ruslan) get a DIY pocket thermal imager up and running. The original board kept producing a noisy frame with a fixed-pattern offset across rows.\nRepo: github.com/georgeschaible/thermal-imager\nThe symptom # Captured frames showed a clear horizontal banding pattern that didn\u0026rsquo;t go away with calibration. Looked like a clocking issue.\nDiagnosis steps # Scoped the SPI clock — clean Checked sensor power rail under load — sagging ~80 mV during readout Added a 22 µF tantalum on the sensor side of the rail — banding gone Reproduction # This is a cat-able single file for now; the full schematic and build log will move to its own page once Ruslan finalizes v0.2.\n","date":"10 April 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/microelectronics/thermal-imager-debug/","section":"Microelectronics","summary":"","title":"Thermal imager troubleshooting","type":"microelectronics"},{"content":"","date":"10 April 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/troubleshooting/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Troubleshooting","type":"tags"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m George Schaible, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Barbara. I study uncultured sulfur-oxidizing bacteria — Thiovulum in particular — using single-cell techniques (Raman microspectroscopy, FISH, SIP-NanoSIMS, correlative microscopy) to connect physiology and ultrastructure to ecosystem function.\nI also build my own scientific instruments. Most of the gear I use day-to-day for sample handling, custom microscopy, and field work is 3D-printed, microcontroller-based, or both. Everything I build, I share openly.\nThe brand # Microbial Quanta comes from the idea that quanta are irreducible fundamental units — the small parts that make up organisms, communities, and ecosystems. The logo is an assembly: tiny dots at the periphery, dense and large at the center, with a single teal point as the focal \u0026ldquo;quantum.\u0026rdquo;\nContact # Email: contact@microbialquanta.com Bluesky: @quantaofgeorge.bsky.social GitHub: @georgeschaible ORCID: 0000-0000-0000-0000 CV # A current CV is available as a PDF. Drop the file in static/files/ to enable the link.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"About","summary":"","title":"About","type":"about"},{"content":"Selected publications. Full list also available on Google Scholar and ORCID.\n2025 Example publication — replace with your real first entry Schaible, G.A., et al. Nature Microbiology (2025) doi:10.xxxx/example 2023 Example earlier work Schaible, G.A., Other, A.B., Third, C.D. The ISME Journal (2023) doi:10.xxxx/example2PDF ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/publications/","section":"Publications","summary":"","title":"Publications","type":"publications"},{"content":"My work sits at the intersection of microbial physiology, cellular biology, and the development of new techniques for studying microbes in their native habitats. The driving question: how do single-cell processes scale up to ecosystem-level function — and what does that look like in the microbes we haven\u0026rsquo;t yet learned to grow in the lab?\nMicrobes in their native habitats # How do microbial communities assemble, interact, and function when left undisturbed in sediments, soils, and aquatic environments? Most of what we know about microbial physiology comes from a handful of well-behaved isolates. The interesting biology is in the rest.\nMotility and collective behavior # What physical and biochemical mechanisms underlie rapid swimming, swarming, and emergent group dynamics in complex fluids? Thiovulum — a large, sulfur-oxidizing bacterium — is one of the fastest swimmers known, and the communities it forms exhibit striking collective behaviors that we\u0026rsquo;re only beginning to understand.\nUltrastructure and cellular architecture # How does sub-cellular organization — from membrane invaginations to cytoskeletal elements — enable environmental adaptation and energy conversion? Correlative electron and fluorescence microscopy lets us map structure onto function at single-cell resolution.\nAdvanced imaging and spectroscopy # Tools like Raman microspectroscopy, FISH, and correlative fluorescence/electron microscopy can be pushed much further to reveal microbial chemistry and identity at the single-cell level.\nIsotope tracing and metabolic flux # What new insights into nutrient cycling and metabolic interactions emerge when we track stable isotope labels through live microbial consortia? SIP-NanoSIMS and Raman-SIP are central tools here.\nMicrobial dark matter # The full extent of microbial diversity on Earth remains largely uncharacterized. A meaningful fraction of species have no cultured representative and no physiological description. The motivating questions:\nHow many microbial species remain physiologically uncharacterized and what roles do they play in ecosystems? How can we better cultivate previously unculturable microbes? What can we learn about them without ever isolating them? DIY instrumentation and open-source tools # Custom-built devices — from handheld controllers to submersible ROVs and Raman microscopes — democratize access to advanced measurements in the field. See the Projects and Microelectronics sections for builds and code.\nData-driven modeling # Machine learning and sparse identification methods can distill governing equations that predict microbial behavior and ecosystem feedbacks. Combining live environmental sampling, real-time telemetry, and automated data pipelines into a unified research workflow surfaces patterns that hand analysis would miss.\nField sites # Past sampling locations include Yellowstone National Park, the Penoche Hills and Mono Lake (Agouron Geobiology course), Sippewissett salt marsh, and the UCSB lagoon system.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/research/","section":"Research","summary":"","title":"Research","type":"research"}]