Microbe Musings is first and foremost a blog dedicated to sharing the latest news related to microbiology. Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world in 2020, most science-based journalism sites only occassionally published microbiology news articles. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated this challenge by focusing much of the effort to report microbiology news on COVID-19 and SARS-Cov-2, the viral agent driving the pandemic. Current efforts to accurately report on the COVID-19 pandemic have also left other microbiology-related stories underreported, including the antibiotic resistance crisis, infectious disease monitoring, and the role of the earth microbiome in climate change to name a few.

To respond to the need for microbiology news reporting, Microbe Musings was created during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. First and foremost, Microbe Musings is a site dedicated to keeping the general public abreast of the microbiology research being conducted worldwide. More improtantly, the site aims to raise awareness and foster healthy, informed discussions about global issues related to microbiology. Topics covered at Microbe Musings will include basic research done on bacteria, viruses, and fungi; the relevance of microbiology research to global and regional issues; and major global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The broad range of topics covered by Microbe Musings will help the website become a pioneer in reporting about microbiology.