Microbiology

Viruses- Affecting Our Ancestors For 30 Million Years

Researchers have revealed the global spread of an ancient group of retroviruses that affected about 28 of 50 modern mammals' ancestors between 15 and 30 million years ago. Retroviruses are abundant in nature and include human immunodeficiency viruses ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 8 2016 - 8:48am

Ancient Seaweed Fossils Some Of The Oldest Of Multicellular Life

Honing in on when life on Earth evolved from single-celled to multicellular organisms is no easy task. Organisms that old lacked many distinguishing characteristics of modern life forms, making their fossils exceptionally rare. But University of Wisconsin ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 25 2016 - 8:26am

Study Finds Vast Diversity Among Viruses That Infect Bacteria

Viruses that infect bacteria are among the most abundant life forms on Earth. Indeed, our oceans, soils and potentially even our bodies would be overrun with bacteria were it not for bacteria-eating viruses, called bacteriophages, that keep the microbial ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 25 2016 - 8:25am

How Maggots Got Back Into Mainstream Medicine

By the time Michelle Marineau saw her patient, James*, there was little she could do to help him. His big toe had been removed, a complication from years of uncontrolled type 2 diabetes, but the amputation site had stubbornly refused to heal. An infection ...

Article - Mosaic Science - May 10 2016 - 9:23am

A Tale Of A Tail: How Viruses Infect Bacteria

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Using state-of-the-art tools, EPFL scientists have described a million-atom "tail" that bacteriophages use to breach bacterial surfaces. The breakthrough has major implications for science and med ...

Article - News Staff - May 19 2016 - 1:01pm

The Politics Of Antibiotic Resistance Factor MCR

The news that the Department of Defense had found a woman in Pennsylvania with a strain of E. coli carrying the gene mcr-1, the first time plasmid-mediated resistance to colistin (MCR) has been found in the United States, should have brought calls to actio ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 26 2016 - 7:23pm

Ancient Alcohol Aficionados

You might think microbreweries are novel and trendy. Okay, they may be trendy but they are not novel. An ancient microbrewery dating around 5,000 years old was recently unearthed in China at the archaeological site of Mijiaya.  Analyzing the remnants of th ...

Article - David Clark - Jun 7 2016 - 11:31am

Acrylamide-Reducing Yeast Gets 'No Questions' Response From FDA On GRAS

Though the claims that acrylamide is dangerous seem to be more manufactured hype than science, that isn't stopping the free market from providing an alternative. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2016 - 1:30pm

Fecal Transplant Shows Gut Microbes Cause Obesity- In Rats, Anyway

Gut microbes are all the rage and scholars everywhere are latching onto the fad. If you are over the age of 30, you have seen this too many times to count. Sugar causes diabetes, salt causes heart disease, trans fats cause everything, saturated fats were ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 9 2016 - 12:37pm

Lessons Of Lager: Yeast Is Science Even Organic Food Shoppers Appreciate

Beer is the world's most commonly fermented beverage and lager beer commands 94 percent of the global market. Making the beer possible is a biological oddity: a hybrid yeast that combines two distinct species and confers the ability to make cold-brew ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 7 2016 - 3:27pm