Microbiology

Not Just Hospitals: 'Superbugs' Breed In Chinese Sewage Plants Too

Tests conducted by scientists from Rice, Nankai and Tianjin universities at two wastewater treatment plants in northern China revealed antibiotic-resistant bacteria were not only escaping purification but also breeding and spreading.   The "superbugs ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 16 2013 - 12:14pm

Candida Albicans: How Does A Microbial Pathogen Do In Spaceflight?

In a new paper, a team reports their recent work examining  the effects of spaceflight on microbial pathogens- in this case infectious disease potential of the fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, the first global gene expression profiling and phenotypic ch ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2013 - 10:50am

How Persistent Bacteria Avoid Antibiotics

Some bacteria achieve resistance to antibiotics through mutation but other types of bacteria, known as 'persistent' bacteria, are not resistant to the antibiotics but simply continue to exist in a dormant or inactive state while exposed to antiba ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 30 2013 - 6:00am

Yogurt Goes Vegan

Want yogurt but don't like the exploitation of dairy cows? Researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de València have some good news. They have used  plant-based “milks” to create products fermented with probiotic bacteria from grains and nuts- an al ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 4 2014 - 6:30am

Science Saves Papaya Crops In Mexico

Mexico is considered one of the leading countries in papaya production but its crops are affected by the virus of the ringed spot, which leaves ring marks in the skin of the fruit and causes softening of the papaya, where fungi start to digest it. More tha ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 5 2014 - 2:37pm

Bacteroides Ovatus Gut Bacterium A Crucial Part Of Our Daily Dietary Fiber Toolkit

Researchers have discovered the genetic machinery that turns the common gut bacterium Bacteroides ovatus  into the Swiss Army knife of the digestive tract, helping us metabolize a main component of dietary fiber from the cell walls of fruits and vegetable ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 20 2014 - 11:54am

Beauty And The Bacteria: Thin Men Have Fewer Nasal Pathogens Than Heavy Ones

As if pretty people didn't have enough advantages, they may also give us a glance at their reproductive health, according to a paper in the American Journal of Human Biology reveals a link between Body Mass Index (BMI) and the amount of bacteria colo ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 18 2014 - 11:05am

Frank Zappa Gets A Zit-Causing Bacterium Named After Him

Would avant-garde musician be offended that scientists named a zit-causing bacterium P. acnes type Zappae. No, he would probably laugh.  ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2014 - 12:01am

Bacteria Go With The Flow- To Stick Around

A new study finds that bacterial movement is impeded in flowing water, enhancing the likelihood that the microbes will attach to surfaces, which sheds some new light on how infections take hold in medical devices. The findings were the result of microscopi ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 24 2014 - 11:06am

Antibiotic Resistance Genes Found From The 14th Century- Long Before Antibiotics Were Used In Medicine

We tend to think of antibiotic resistance as a product of modern medicine and the mutation ability of pesky viruses to get around dying. Writing in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a team of investigators say they have discovered viruse ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 27 2014 - 6:35pm