Microbiology

Alteromonas Bacterium Plays A Big Role In Ocean Carbon Cycling

It's broadly understood that the world's oceans play a crucial role in the global-scale cycling and exchange of carbon between Earth's ecosystems and atmosphere. Now scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have tak ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 24 2014 - 3:49pm

Why We Should Keep Smallpox Around

Smallpox as a disease is dead and has been since 1980. Should we let the virus behind it die? Variola, the virus that causes smallpox, is on the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the governing body of the World Health Orga ...

Article - News Staff - May 4 2014 - 11:00pm

Necrophiliac Recombination: Because Regular Sex Is So Boring

How can you be both a necrophiliac and chaste? Welcome to the fascinating world of bacterial reproduction. Bacteria don't have sex the way humans think of sex- they can mix their genetic material in a  process called recombination, by pulling in DNA ...

Article - News Staff - May 4 2014 - 10:51am

Watch Out, Mars, We Took You Out Once Before And We Can Do It Again Without Even Trying

In old movies, humans feared invaders from other planets, but they had better watch out for us. In "War of the Worlds" we took out the Martians using nothing but microorganisms, so if imagine if we really tried. Interplanetary exchange of organi ...

Article - News Staff - May 2 2014 - 2:38pm

First Living Organism That Transmits Added Letters In DNA 'Alphabet' Created

A bacterium whose genetic material includes an added pair of DNA "letters," or bases, not found in nature has been created. The cells of this unique bacterium can replicate the unnatural DNA bases more or less normally, for as long as the molecu ...

Article - News Staff - May 7 2014 - 1:16pm

Living Fossils In The Indo-Pacific!

Researchers have reported a unique discovery; the marine dinoflagellate Dapsilidinium pastielsii in Southeast Asia, notably the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool.  This unicellular species, with planktonic and benthic stages, was previously thought to have become ext ...

Article - News Staff - May 8 2014 - 4:00am

Microbiomes And Molds: Cheese In The Name Of Science

The rind is the boundary layer between a cheese and the environment. It hosts a variety of microorganisms that comprise the microbiome, a symbiotic community whose members perform different tasks. Some break down proteins and fats on the rind, creating vo ...

Article - News Staff - May 9 2014 - 10:56pm

The Myth Of Urine Sterility

There is a reason why peeing in your house is not actually a good idea- but some doctors have perpetuated the idea that urine is sterile by using that as a test for urinary tract infections. Not that you should ever use Wikipedia for anything, but the non ...

Article - News Staff - May 18 2014 - 12:12pm

Schistosomiasis- New Urine Test Could Help Millions

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that infects 243million people worldwide, and kills about 200 thousand every year. Theinfection is contracted through contaminated waters, and in the developingworld, where is most common, is 2nd only to malaria in r ...

Article - Catarina Amorim - May 23 2014 - 3:59pm

Oritavancin: One And Done Antibiotic Could Reduce MRSA

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become the poster child for antibiotic resistance in large part because of a larger problem: patients tend to stop taking antibiotics once they feel better. In such instances, the surviving bacteria m ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2014 - 5:39pm