MicrobeWorld

In 2011, Lake Erie experienced the largest algae bloom in its recorded history. At its peak in October, the mat of green scum on the lake’s surface was nearly four inches thick and covered an area of almost 2,000 square miles. That’s three times larger than any other bloom in the lake, ever. Plu... Read More

LOS ALAMOS, N. M., March 29, 2013—A new study by Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of Pennsylvania scientists defines previously unknown properties of transmitted HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS. The viruses that successfully pass from a chronically infected person to a new individ... Read More

Researchers at UC Davis have shown how the innate immune system distinguishes between dangerous pathogens and friendly microbes. Like burglars entering a house, hostile bacteria give themselves away by breaking into cells. However, sensing proteins instantly detect the invasion, triggering an al... Read More

The World Health Organization says no evidence has emerged to show that a type of bird flu which has killed two Chinese men can be transmitted between people.

Two men in Shanghai, aged 87 and 27, fell sick in late February. A woman in Anhui province also contracted the virus in early March an... Read More

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Two people in China have died and another remains critical after falling ill with a strain of bird flu not detected before in humans, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. Both of those who died, men aged 27 and 87, lived in Shanghai, while a 35-year-old woman in C... Read More

TPC Wire & Cable Corp. ( www.tpcwire.com) announces the launch of their first antimicrobial cable product called DEFENDER® for the industrial food and beverage market. The DEFENDER antimicrobial cable jacket eliminates greater than 99% of bacteria (e.g. E. Coli, Salmonella) and fungus (e.g. Aspe... Read More

Normally we shudder when we think of bacteria, but a new study reveals that some of these microorganisms may be able to help us lose weight.

The study, published in the March 27 issue of Science Translational Medicine, showed that bacteria in the guts of mice changed after they had gastric by... Read More

The American Society for Microbiology is celebrating Read an eBook Week* from April 1st to April 5th, 2013. During this time, they are offering full access to many of their titles and you can read your favorite eBooks for free at the ASM Press eBookstore. (Click "source" above for the link.)

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Health officials say they still don't understand how a lesser-known bird flu virus was able to kill two men and seriously sicken a woman in China, but that it's unlikely that it can spread easily among humans.

Two men in Shanghai became the first known human fatalities from the H7N9 bird flu ... Read More

This episode explains how microbiologists perfected the art of using the fewest possible letters in place of really long complicated words, long before cell phones and the internet were invented! Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Read More

This episode: Our brain might be home to helpful bacteria!

Download Episode (3.5 MB, 3.75 minutes)

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Single-celled archaea are invisible to the naked eye, and even when using a microscope, great care must be taken to observe them. An international team of researchers led by the Center for Geomicrobiology, Aarhus University, Denmark, has nevertheless succeeded in retrieving four archaeal cells f... Read More

The latter half of the 19th century was a critical period in the development of Western, or what is now complimentarily called modern, medicine. The famed chemist Louis Pasteur and the physician Robert Koch established on a firm intellectual foundation the notion that the cause of infectious dis... Read More

Scientists at the University of Texas and the University of Iowa have created a synthetic bacteria that grows thanks to one of humankind's favorite stimulants — caffeine. According to a report from Quartz, this bacteria can be added to any caffeinated beverage and it'll grow according to the lev... Read More

Adorning your living room mantel with a petri dish full of germs normally wouldn’t sound appealing. But once you take a look at Zachary Copfer’s unique creations, you might be intrigued — if you’re not already running to the bathroom to wash your hands.

Copfer is a Cincinnati-based microbiolo... Read More

A nasty fungal infection that can spread to the lungs or brain and cause lifetime symptoms is on the rise in the Southwestern U.S., federal health officials reported on Thursday. Cases of Valley Fever, known medically as coccidioidomycosis, have increased nearly 10-fold between 1998 and 2011, th... Read More

Plant waste has long been seen as a possible source of sustainable biofuels, and new research out of Rice University could unlock some of the energy that scientists say lies waiting in organic material.

According to materials provided by Rice, bioengineer Ka-Yiu San and his lab have developed... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Laura Piddock, Read More

Producing vaccines against viral threats is a potentially hazardous business and that's why manufacturers have to operate strict controls to ensure that no pathogens escape.

British scientists have developed a new method to create an entirely synthetic vaccine which doesn't rely on using live... Read More