Microbiology

How Antibodies Navigate Pathogen Surfaces

A new mode of how antibodies navigate the surface of pathogens like coronaviruses compares the migration of these pathogen hunters to the random movements of a child on stepping stones. Antibodies are often thought of as Y-shaped proteins but perhaps a mor ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2022 - 7:54pm

Would More Vegetarian Food Have Prevented COVID-19? Philosophers Do Science, Hilarity Ensues

Animals can cause diseases in humans. That won't surprise you. What may surprise you is to read that these diseases can be prevented by eating less meat.  ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Mar 27 2022 - 12:44am

Kyrgyzstan Was Ground Zero For The 14th Century Black Plague

In 1347, the Bubonic or Black Plague first entered the Mediterranean via trade ships transporting goods from the territories of the Golden Horde in the Black Sea. The disease tore through Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa, in some cases claiming ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 16 2022 - 10:08am

Lost Hammer And A Blueprint For Life On Mars

Some areas on Mars are extremely salty, very cold, and have only a hint of oxygen- just like Earth. Yet even in the permafrost of Lost Hammer Spring in the Nunavut territory of Canada’s High Arctic, researchers have found microbes that have never been iden ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 22 2022 - 9:33am

Odin Tubulin May Be A Missing Link Beween Single-Celled Organisms And Humans

Eukaryogenesis is the point at which animal and plant cells separate from bacteria. In animal and plant cells, tubulin forms microtubules which are critical to their internal organization, because they support the cell, giving it structure, shape, and inte ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 28 2022 - 10:35am

How The COVID-19 Omicron Subvariant BA.5 Became A Deadly Master Of Disguise

The omicron subvariant known as BA.5 was first detected in South Africa in February 2022 and spread rapidly throughout the world. As of the second week of July 2022, BA.5 constituted nearly 80% of COVID-19 variants in the United States. ...

Article - The Conversation - Jul 26 2022 - 10:19am

Do Not Eat Any Romaine Lettuce, Warns CDC Two Weeks Late

After 32 people were infected with the outbreak strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7 in 11 states between October 8th to October 31st, the CDC is now warning people about Romaine lettuce.  All of it, whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, an ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 18 2022 - 8:06am

Science Vs Nature: How To Prevent Rot In Half Of All Food

Whole Foods and other high-priced alternatives like Farmer's Markets sell imagery of pretty, thin people carrying bountiful produce, but the icky reality is that, unless it is canned or frozen, most food purchased rots quickly. It is nature at work. R ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 23 2022 - 11:19am

Another Virus From China Has Been Detected In Switzerland

Two years before SARS-CoV-2, the Alongshan (ALS) virus emerged in China. It was alarming because it was found to be a member of the flavivirus family along with the devastating tickborne encephalitis  (TBE) virus, which can cause inflammation of the brain ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 8 2022 - 2:24pm

How Pasteur Made Our Modern Food Bonanza Possible

The death of a three-year-old child caused by drinking unpasteurized milk late last year invited much commentary about food safety and regulation. But little has been said about the man who gave his name to the process that makes dairy products, and many ...

Article - The Conversation - Mar 9 2023 - 3:55pm