MicrobeWorld

Have you googled anything today? If so, you may have noticed that the Google Doodle looks different. That's because today is the 161st anniversary of the birth of German bacteriologist, Julius Richard Petri. He was the inventor of the Petri dish – one of the most ubiquitous items used by microbi... Read More

SOMETIMES, to achieve broad cultural immortality, it’s less what you made your name in — and much more what you put your name on.

That is why, in the wider world beyond the lab, Robert Bunsen’s name burns so bright. And if anyone understands the conditions for how our culture behaves (and mut... Read More

The life cycle of D. discoideum begins as spores that are released from a mature fruiting body. Read More

The life cycle of D. discoideum begins as spores that are released from a mature fruiting body. Read More

Scientists are great at growing E. coli in the lab. They know exactly under which conditions various strains thrive. Unfortunately, there is only so much that can be learned from the bacteria’s behavior in an ideal, isolated and ultimately unrealistic environment. That is why a group of research... Read More

The head of the World Health Organization warned the world this week of a new virus, awkwardly dubbed MERS-CoV, found in Saudi Arabia.

"Looking at the overall global situation, my greatest concern right now is the novel coronavirus," Margaret Chan said, calling it "a threat to the entire worl... Read More

A new research project involving researchers from Bath aims to develop novel self-healing concrete that uses an inbuilt immune system to close its own wounds and prevent deterioration.

The life of concrete structures is reduced when the material cracks and water is able to get at the steel re... Read More

A method that promises to reduce by more than half the time it takes health officials to identify Salmonella strains has been developed by researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

The finding is important because it promises to significantly speed up the response to many ... Read More

Bathing all patients daily with a germ-killing soap and swabbing antibiotic ointment in their noses may be the best way to reduce the spread of deadly infections, including MRSA.

In a new study, these measures reduced the bloodstream infections caused by dangerous pathogens, including the dru... Read More

Recognize an outstanding colleague, student, or mentor by nominating him/her for an asm2014 achievement award. The ASM Awards Program strives to honor the best in research, service, and education, and needs your help to do so! The deadline for awards to be presented at asm2014 is July 1, 2013. P... Read More

When you're hard drive fails, you order a new one online and then swap it out. Why can't we do that for biological parts as well? From DNA robots and "organs-on-a-chip" to nanobristles that grab-and-release drugs, this slideshow explores the two major goals of synthetic biology: to build new bio... Read More

The first description of the 4-million-atom structure of the HIV’s capsid, or protein shell, could lead to new ways to fight the virus. The findings are highlighted on the cover of the May 30 issue of Nature.

“The capsid is critically important for HIV replication, so knowing its structure in... Read More

Bloodstream infections cut by more than 40 percent in study of over 74,000 patients. Using germ-killing soap and ointment on all intensive-care unit (ICU) patients can reduce bloodstream infections by up to 44 percent and significantly reduce the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus ... Read More

Virus particles of the same type had been thought to have identical structures, like a mass-produced toy, but a new visualization technique developed by a Purdue University researcher revealed otherwise.

Wen Jiang, an associate professor of biological sciences, found that an important viral s... Read More

Researchers apply a new experimental approach to visualize the turbulent motion of swimming bacteria and propose a minimal model that captures their observations.

Bacteria are among the oldest and most abundant living species on Earth, and their activity influences the planet’s environmental ... Read More

Usually, when you mention bacteria in connection with water, it’s a bad thing. But one Texas A&M engineering researcher believes the right bacteria are a natural weapon for fighting an emerging water contaminant: estrogen.

Increasingly sensitive methods of screening water for polluting substa... Read More

Researchers and physicians in the field could soon run on-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, medical diagnostics, food safety and more with their smartphones.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed a cradle and app for the iPhone that uses the phone's buil... Read More

It's a question we ask about many recently discovered bacteria: What, exactly, do the Verrucomicrobial do in the environment? Since their discovery, representatives of the phylum Verrucomicrobia have been detected in soil and aquatic environments around the world, but we have very few existing i... Read More

In this blog post, I discuss how students begin to find their "path" to a career that they will love in science. I aIso write about the late, great Richard Feynman. Read More

For the first time, researchers have found a particular kind of molecular switch in the food poisoning bacteria Salmonella Typhimurium under infection-like conditions. This switch, using a process called S-thiolation, appears to be used by the bacteria to respond to changes in the environment du... Read More