The bacterial foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is the causative agent of listeriosis, a debilitating disease linked with about 2,500 illnesses and more than 500 deaths in the U.S.A. each year. A characteristic feature of L. monocytogenes is its ability to grow at cold temperatures and even in the presence of high concentrations of salt - traditional food preservation techniques which arrest the growth of most other pathogens.

The bacterium protects itself from such stresses by twisting into a protective corkscrew type shape in an effort to reduce its exposure to the stress—in the same way a human might wrap up tight—hugging the core to reduce the effects of the cold. 

Viruses and genes interact in a way that may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia significantly - even in a developing fetus, according to an international team which scanned the genomes of hundreds of sick and healthy people to see if there is an interaction between genes and a very common virus, cytomegalovirus, and to see whether the interaction influences the risk of developing schizophrenia.

And it does, they concluded.

Women who have been infected by the virus - around 70 % have - will see a statistically significant increased risk of giving birth to a child who later develops schizophrenia if the child also has the gene variant. This variant is found in 15 percent.

The risk is five times higher than usual.

It's among the most ancient of questions in history, covering metaphysics, chemistry, biology and theology: What are the origins of life on Earth?

Scientists say they have done laboratory resurrections of several 2 to 3 billion-year-old proteins, ancient ancestors of the enzymes that enable today's antibiotic-resistant bacteria to shrug off huge doses of penicillins, cephalosporins and other modern drugs.

Antibiotic resistance existed long before Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic in 1928. Genes that contain instructions for making the proteins responsible for antibiotic resistance have been found in 30,000-year-old permafrost sediment and other ancient sites. The new study research focused on beta-lactamases, enzymes responsible for resistance to the family of antibiotics that includes penicillin, which scientists believe originated billions of years ago.

Studies by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)  Agroecosystems Management Research Unit in Lincoln, Nebraska  are shedding some light on the microbes that dwell in cattle manure—what they are, where they thrive, where they struggle, and where they can end up.  

In one project, ARS microbiologist Lisa Durso used fecal samples from six beef cattle to identify a core set of bovine gastrointestinal bacterial groups common to both beef and dairy cattle. She also observed a number of bacteria in the beef cattle that had not been reported in dairy cows, and identified a diverse assortment of bacteria from the six individual animals, even though all six consumed the same diet and were the same breed, gender and age.

An international group of scientists has discovered a new class of molecular compounds capable of killing the influenza virus. 

You learned this from your parents; too much even of a good thing can be a killer and that same idea has led to manipulating an enzyme that is key to how influenza replicates and spreads. The  newly discovered compounds interrupt the enzyme neuraminidase's facilitation of influenza's spread.

Species facing widespread and rapid environmental changes can sometimes evolve quickly enough to dodge the extinction bullet.

Studies have shown that the more gradual the change, the better the chances for 'evolutionary rescue', that process of mutations occurring fast enough to allow a population to avoid extinction in changing environments. One obvious reason is that more individuals remain alive when change is gradual or moderate, meaning there are more opportunities for a winning mutation to emerge. 

It's the weekend, which means it is time for scientists, science journalists, book authors and intellectually curious readers to think about microbiology.  And that means beer. Beer is actually safer to drink than water. You didn't know that?  Let's talk some biology.

The master ingredient in beer is yeast. That's a microbe! So if you do experiments with beer this weekend, you are advancing the world of science.  If you make beer, you are a microbiologist.  If you drink beer, you are a microbiologist. Microbiologists understand beer and bacteria and stuff, which is why they drink beer more than water.

What happens to used motor oil after it leaves our cars? That's a question that many of us don't stop to ask, but hopefully the answer is that it is taken to a recycler to be cleaned for future reuse.

However, even if the oil handled in the most responsible way possible, chances are that a bit gets dribbled on the ground during the transfer from car to container. Places such as car dealerships and body shops will likely see a number of these dribbles over the years, potentially leading to an unhealthy buildup of oil residues in nearby soils.

It's winter in the northern hemisphere and that means flu season. 

As influenza spreads through the northern hemisphere winter, researchers in the laboratory of Professor Jose Villadangos at the University of Melbourne believe they have a new clue to why some people fight infections better than others.

The lab has been investigating the 'defensive devices' contained within the T- cells that are located on exposed body surfaces such as skin and mucosal surfaces to ward off infection. T-cells detect cells infected with viruses and kill them before the virus can reproduce within the infected cell and spread to other cells.