Microbiology

Biological Insecticides- Entomopathogenic Viruses Control Potato Moth

New biological insecticides, which make use of “entomopathogenic” viruses that are harmful to insects, have emerged in recent years. The big advantage versus regular pesticides is that they are innocuous to man, vertebrae and plants, and environmental acti ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 29 2013 - 2:16pm

Dictyostelium Discoideum: World's Smallest Farmer Gets Cloned And Reveals A Key Mutation

In 2011, a paper revealed that Dictyostelium discoideum, a single-celled organism, picks up edible bacteria, carries them to new locations and harvests them like crops- basically, it is the world's smallest farmer. (Nature 469, 393-396 doi:10.1038/nat ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 4 2013 - 2:49pm

Bacteria In Drinking Water- Not Always The Enemy

Cleaner drinking water with fewer chemicals may be made possible using... bacteria. A research team studied four bacteria, Sphingobium, Xenophilus, Methylobacterium and Rhodococcus, found in a city's drinking water to see which combinations were more ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2013 - 10:02am

Link between Induced Labor and Autism: New Evidence

12.00 A study released on Monday found a link between induced or augmented labor, that is, the use of Pitocin, and autism. Women whose doctors decided to begin labor by administering Pitocin, an artificial form of oxytocin, or to speed up contractions wit ...

Blog Post - Susan Kuchinskas - Aug 15 2013 - 10:13am

Breast Is Best: Mom's Mammary Microbiome

Breast-feeding is back. When it comes to early establishment of gut and immune health for babies, 'breast is best' according to a new study of how 'good' bacteria arrive in babies' digestive systems. How babies acquire a populatio ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 22 2013 - 8:01am

Farm To Fork- Now With More Salmonella

 Tracing the transmission of individual strains from agricultural environments to humans through the food system is difficult because of the rapid evolution of resistance patterns in these bacteria. Resistance patterns change so quickly that it has been i ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 29 2013 - 10:37am

Strain Of MERS Coronavirus Engineered For Use In A Vaccine

Scientists have developed a strain of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that could be used as a vaccine against the disease, according to an upcoming paper. Since MERS was first identified in June 2012, the World Health Organizat ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 10 2013 - 1:38am

Haptic Optical Tweezers Let You Touch The Microcosmos

Researchers at Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France have unveiled a new technique that allows microscope users to manipulate samples using a technology known as haptic optical tweezers. The new technique allows users to explore the microworld by sen ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2013 - 6:28pm

Open Gut Swimming: Fish Skin Immune Responses Resemble Those Of Stomach

A new study has found that not only does fish skin resemble the gut morphologically, but key components of skin immune responses are also akin to those of the gut.  Fish skin is unique in that it lacks keratin, the fibrous protein found in mammalian skin ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2013 - 7:30am

The Cat And Mouse Nature Of The Parasite Behind Toxoplasmosis

The Toxoplasma parasite has been linked spontaneous abortion in pregnant women and killing immune-compromised patients, but it has even stranger effects in mice.  Infected mice lose their fear of cats. That's good for cats and then for the parasite, ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2013 - 6:32pm