MicrobeWorld

As if another reason was needed to quit smoking, though this one is certainly a doozy. Read More

In the ongoing battle between pathogens and humans, bacteria have an unusual survival tactic: playing dead.

cientists in Boston and elsewhere are increasingly interested in mysterious “persisters’’ — a small number of cells in a bacterial population that are not growing, but are also not dead... Read More

Last year a mutation in the HA gene of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus was identified in isolates from patients with severe disease. At the time I concluded that the emergence of this change was not a concern. Recently the Norwegian Institute of Public Health reported that the mutation, which caus... Read More

A study has investigated whether a commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction test for MRSA could be used as a point of care test.

GeneXpert systems, used to carry out the MRSA test, were installed on four wards at the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and in the microbiolo... Read More

Which grad school should you go to?… should you take that new job?… should you quit your current job?… should you stay in science?… should you get married, go for a run, eat that chocolate bar?…..

You have a multitude of decisions to make in your life. But now you are facing a particularly im... Read More

The hunt continues for novel antiviral agents especially against the pandemic H1N1 virus. In this article, a drug that has been used to fight HIV infection and vesicular stomatitis now appears to have the potential to block influenzavirus infection by inhibiting neuraminidase. This may be yet ... Read More

A team of scientists based at San Diego State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of South Florida have analyzed all sequence data available in public databases from complete genomes and environmental community genomes, and found out that jumping genes (known as transposase... Read More

It’s wondrous how the vast and the infinitesimal combine to make our planet work. Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found that bacteria in the ocean, gathering in sort of “microbial block parties,” communicate and cooperate with each other to have a significant impac... Read More

The film "Avatar" isn't the only 3-D blockbuster making a splash this winter. A team of scientists from Houston's Texas Medical Center this week unveiled a new technique for growing 3-D cell cultures, a technological leap from the flat petri dish that could save millions of dollars in drug-testi... Read More

This classic educational video covers algae and aquatic microorganisms. Produced in 1979 by BioMedia Associates, it features some great microscopy. Read More

When a bacterium goes over the top with making a particular gene transcript, it needs a way to degrade that mRNA before it invests too much energy and resources in creating unneeded proteins. A new Observation piece accepted for the inaugural issue of mBio reveals that antisense RNAs may be an ... Read More

Talk about green jobs! The California company Microvi Biotech has developed a low cost, low impact, energy efficient system that puts billions of microorganisms to work, cleaning up notorious soil and groundwater pollutants like perchlorate, a rocket fuel additive that is also used to make expl... Read More

Perhaps Jerry Lee Lewis's rock n' roll classic will soon be topping the charts of virologists world wide! Read More

Researchers have devised a way to attach sugars to proteins using unique biological and chemical methods. This means that large quantities of different glycoproteins can be generated for various medical and biological studies.

When the intestinal bacterium E. coli and the diarrheal pathogen ... Read More

A virus that destroys cancer cells but leaves normal cells unharmed works against prostate cancer, a human study shows.

The virus also blasts lymphoid, colon, ovarian, breast, pancreatic, brain, lung, head and neck, and other cancer cells.

The virus is called reovirus, and nearly everyone ... Read More

The cyanobacterial mat is on the shores of Lake Fryxell in Taylor Valley- the McMurdo Dry Valley region of Antarctica. These organisms actively grow only a few weeks a year during December and January. Photo taken by Scott Craig and contributed by Dr. Laurie Connell. Read More

Have you been following the strange story of the heroin addicts in Scotland who have been contracting anthrax infections? Two more addicts are being treated, according to a report we picked up on Promed, a clearinghouse for infectious disease news. Since December, 10 people have died in Scotlan... Read More

Today's decision by a federal court that the preservative thimerosal does not cause autism has sparked a lot of comment in the autism community, most of it negative. Many saw it as a government conspiracy to protect the vaccine industry, a claim that has also been made about the swine flu vacci... Read More

A continuación: la fiebre de los cereales, colonizando vejigas, tarjetas de memoria con virus y la fabricación de compost con gusanos como un arte.

La fiebre de los cereales

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Like a band of detectives surveying the movement of a criminal, researchers using photographic technology have caught at least one culprit in the act.

In this case, electron microscopy was used to watch a deadly bacteria breakdown cell walls in wine grape plants -- an image that previously ha... Read More