MicrobeWorld

Mycoplasma fermentans. Photomicrograph, stained. Note colonial morphology after 14 days growth on agar (400x) Read More

According to research presented at the American Society for Microbiology's 109 General Meeting in Philadelphia, Rogers and Z. Koçer, of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, found that influenza viruses can easily survive freezing in pond water, and emerge from the melting ice strong enough to... Read More

Vaccines intended to help the body to fight off the flu bug may actually give the bug an edge, researchers say.

That doesn't mean vaccines are bad, it just may help explain why they aren't as good as they could be, says Dr. Andrew Mellor, director of the Immunotherapy Center at the Medical Co... Read More

An international team of researchers has identified one of the protein components of a molecular complex that allows light reception in a laboratory fungus.

The results were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by the team, which includes Prof. Luis M. Cor... Read More

The Water Education Collaborative (WEC) has produced a kid friendly website for the residents of the Genesee Regional Watershed of Lake Ontario about the enormous impact they can have on the water quality in the area. WEC leaders teamed up with the Stormwater Coalition of Monroe County and the A... Read More

Scientists at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases of National Health Laboratory Service (NICD-NHLS), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Roche's 454 Life Sciences Corporation have discovered th... Read More

Call it advanced warfare on the most elemental of levels.

Researchers at Texas A&M University's Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering have discovered how certain types of bacteria integrate the DNA that they have captured from invading enemies into their own genetic makeup to incr... Read More

In episode 35 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dick Despommier and guest Read More

A promising antimicrobial agent already known to kill bacteria can also kill viruses and stimulate the innate immune system, according to researchers at National Jewish Health. In a paper appearing online June 4 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Michael Howell, PhD, Assistant Professo... Read More

Dogfish Head Brewery from Delaware has announced they will be recreating the original recipe of a 9,000 year old brew whose ingredients were deduced from pottery shards found in Northern China.

"University of Pennsylvania molecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern first described the beverage i... Read More

Dengue Fever (DF) and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) are the most important vector-borne viral diseases in the World. Around 50-100 million cases appear each year putting 2.5 billion people at risk of suffering this debilitating and sometimes fatal disease. Dengue Fever is prevalent in the Tropi... Read More

The Minnesota Zoo has published an educational site for children where you match the feces to the animal. Personally, I find this cuts close to the edge of common decency but I did learn that the ostrich is the only bird that can poop and pee separately. I have a feeling young kids will love thi... Read More

The Scientific American offers up a wonderful slide show of the world's seven deadliest mushrooms. My personal favorite in this collection is the European destroying angel. Click source to view Read More

Since this has sort of been "Joe DeRisi week" here at MicrobeWorld, I thought it would be nice to include this presentation he gave at TED earlier this year. After all he did just receive the Eli Lilly and Company Research Award and Merry Buckley from the Meet the Scientist podcast also publishe... Read More

Swine flu reminded us how important washing our hands can be. Studies show that simple handwashing can decrease communicable gastrointestinal diseases by 50% and communicable respiratory diseases by 20%.

Now, with schools at special risk for swine flu, a Tel Aviv University researcher is brin... Read More

"H1N1 flu is casting a distinctly dappled shadow across the Iowa State Fair Grounds, where 18,000 pork producers (including about 3,000 from 50 foreign countries), 450 exhibitors and 2,500 pigs are spending much of this week."

It seems the H1N1 flu and the spread of misinformation regarding i... Read More

Stonyfield Farms, the makers of the popular yogurt brand by the same name, has come up with a special diet for cows in Vermont that helps to reduce methane emissions up to 18% or so. Climatologist are excited about this idea since many vieew cows and their gas as a big threat to climate change.
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In the latest issue of New Scientist, Sheldon Krimsky, adjunct professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, states that the "blurring of the boundaries between independently refereed publications and advertorials is unacceptable.... Read More

The most recent issue of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science has a great interview with John Barry, historian and author of "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History." The interview discusses his book, it's impact on pandemic pol... Read More

Bacterial parasites known to infect cell nuclei are often assumed to be few and far between. But, recent research from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Symbiosis Group, in Bremen, Germany, describes a novel bacterial parasite named "Candidatus Endonucleobacter bathymodioli" th... Read More