Mighty small: Observing and modeling individual microbes becomes big science.

Jan-Ulrich Kreft, Caroline M. Plugge, Volker Grimm, Clara Prats, Johan H. J. Leveau, Thomas Banitz, Stephen Baines, James Clark, Alexandra Ros, Isaac Klapper, Chris J. Topping, Anthony J. Field, Andrew Schuler, Elena Litchman, and Ferdi L. Hellweger Centre for Systems Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom; Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University, 6703 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands; Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, 14469 Potsdam, Germany; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany; Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, School of Agricultural Engineering of Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya–BarcelonaTech, 08860 Castelldefels, Spain; Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis CA 95616; Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-5245; Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth PL1 3DH, United Kingdom; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287; Department of Mathematics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122; Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 8410, Rønde, Denmark; Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom; Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87106; Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI 49060; and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115