An influential article in my career development was this piece on the Washington Post in 1996 by Stephen Jay Gould. I was already convinced bacteria were important and interesting. But it was nice to see the person who got me interested in evolution (via his books and then a class I took from him in college) emphasizing the bacteria. Here is a link to the Post archive of it.
PLANET OF THE BACTERIA – The Washington Post
Well, my mom sent me a copy of it and I kept it all these years. Just scanned it so, I thought I would share what it looked like in the paper since this is VERY different from looking at the text on the Post archive site.
I like the last part too – an ad for the American Society for Microbiology that went with the article.