Microbiology

Vaccinate Plants Against Insects And Disease

Science is always looking for new ways to protect plants and the environment. In Hawaii, for example, when their staple papaya was under attack by aphids that transferred the "papaya ringspot virus" to plants, legacy breeding and pesticides did n ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jan 24 2025 - 5:00am

H5N1: Raw Milk And Raw Pet Food Are Unsafe But Raw Cheese Aged 60 Days Is 87% Not Killing You

The only real way to wipe out H5N1, the bird flu that has been ruining egg prices since last year, is to kill off all the wild birds. That is not practical but what we can do is stop buying raw pet food. All of it. Now. And never start again. You will kill ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Mar 14 2025 - 2:15pm

Raman Spectroscopy Makes Saliva A Good Way To Detect Cancer

A few drops of saliva can now reveal what used to require a scalpel, a syringe or a scan. Scientists have developed ways to analyze spit for the tiniest traces of illness – from mouth cancer to diabetes, and even brain diseases like Alzheimer’s. Unlike bl ...

Article - The Conversation - May 10 2025 - 4:30am

Ohio State Endorses Probiotic Yogurt- Using Mouse Studies

A new paper from Ohio State University can be considered a giant endorsement for yogurt that makes you poop- but unfortunately for giddy food corporations hoping to gain some scientific credibility it is only in mice, and therefore EXPLORATORY. Because mic ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 17 2025 - 8:59am

RSV Vaccine For Pregnant Women Leads To 72% Fewer Babies Hospitalized With The Virus

Real world data show that the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine rolled out for pregnant women in the UK last year has already resulted in a 72 percent drop in babies being admitted to the hospital among women who took it.  Experts predict that as m ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2025 - 8:46am

‘Universal’ Antibody Cocktail Targets Flu Virus Weak Spot

FDA-approved flu treatments target viral enzymes of influenza but the virus mutates, which is why there is a new vaccine each year. Recent work showed that a cocktail of antibodies offered protection mice from nearly every strain of influenza. Even avian a ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2025 - 11:30am

Your Predator: Badlands Future- Optical Camouflage, Now Made By Bacteria

In the various 'Predator' films, the alien hunter can see across various spectra while enabling camouflage from our vision. That happens in nature. Octopuses, squids, and the scariest of them all, cuttlefish, in the cephalopod family have evolved ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 3 2025 - 9:22am

Why Name That Arsenic Microbe GFAJ-1?

It was hard to miss the arsenic microbe news last week.  Heck, I was in the woods of Pennsylvania with no cell phone access much less Internet and I knew about it. The NASA hype machine and mass media's need to sell eyeballs made sure of that. ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Dec 3 2025 - 11:00am

Life On Arsenic? Why Some Science Just Won’t Die- And Why It Matters For Real Discovery

Remember when a small bacterium from California’s Mono Lake was supposed to rewrite the very definition of life? Headlines screamed: NASA finds “alien” life on Earth! The organism reportedly swapped out precious phosphorus- one of life’s six essential buil ...

Article - Devendra Singh - Dec 5 2025 - 4:30am