MicrobeWorld

Phase contrast image of fresh water unicellular algae Haematococcus pluvialis colelcted at 100X. This species is well known for its high content of the strong antioxidant astaxanthin, which is important in aquaculture, various pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Fourth Prize, 2009 Olympus BioScapes ... Read More

In 2009 researchers from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio and other institutions crack the genetic code of Schistosoma mansoni, a flatworm that can live up to 10 years on average in humans. The parasite is endemic in many tropical areas of the world.

Nature (16-Jul-2009) Read More

Toxoplasma gondii oocysts from cat feces. Taken from the Wistrich Collection. Read More

If we can visualize a protein's shape, we can learn much more about how it functions and how we might block its activity. This was the guiding principle behind an NIH initiative launched 25 years ago to spur the discovery of HIV-related protein structures. Structures produced through the program... Read More

As a closer view of PHIL 12265, this photograph depicts the colonial morphology displayed by Gram-negative Yersinia pestis bacteria, which was grown on a medium of sheep's blood agar (SBA), for a 72 hour time period, at room temperature. Y. pestis is the bacterium responsible for causing the inf... Read More

The Human Microbiome Project has spent two years surveying bacteria and other microbes at different sites on 242 healthy people. The chart below hints at the complex combinations of microbes living in and on the human body.

The New York Times - Science Read More

An I Can Haz Cheezburger meme for ASM's General Meeting in San Francisco created by artist Michele Banks. Read More

Princeton University Art of Science 2009 Online Gallery - "Worm Love" submission by Maria Ciocca, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

I am a graduate student in a lab that studies the process of asymmetric cell division in the development of model organisms, such as the nematode Cae... Read More

Confocal micrograph of wheat stigma hairs (blue) infected with ergot fungus (light pink). The stigma is the female part of the plant. The plant is fertilised by the (male) pollen grain, which sticks to a stigma hair causing growth of a pollen tube into the plant's ovary, causing an embryonic whe... Read More

A toxin-producing cyanobacteria with natural chlorophyll fluorescence (red) and DNA stain (green).

Location: Orlando, FL, USA

Photographer: Barry Rosen, , U.S. Geological Survey Read More

Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochete, a class of long, slender bacteria that typically take on a coiled shape. Infection with this bacterium causes Lyme disease.

Credit: Tina Carvalho, University of Hawaii at Manoa, NIGMS photo gallery
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Image of Streptococcus, a type (genus) of spherical bacteria that can colonize the throat and back of the mouth. Stroptococci often occur in pairs or in chains, as shown here.

Tina Carvalho, University of Hawaii at Manoa Read More

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of malaria (Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis) oocysts ( thick-walled structure in which sporozoan zygotes develop) developing on the midgut wall of the mosquito Anopheles.

Credit: Hilary Hurd, Wellcome Images Read More

A dying pelican crawls away from the surf to die on the beach of Paita, Peru on May 2, 2012. According to Peruvian vice minister of Environment, Gabriel Quijandria, the cause of death of thousands of fish, sea birds and diverse animal wildlife that has been washing ashore in the northern coasts ... Read More

Photomicrograph of Chlamydia grown in culture. The sample was taken from rhesus monkey kidney cells and stained with giemsa. The cell nuclei appear red and the infective 'elementary bodies' of the Chlamydia, which develop in 'blisters' in the cells, fluoresce green. Chlamydia is a very common se... Read More

Serratia marcescens streaked on a DNA plate and incubated for 48 hours at room temperature. Read More

This is a live image of the of Diatom Arachnoidiscus under 40x magnification. The picture shows the diatom's silicified cell wall, which forms a pillbox-like shell (frustule) composed of overlapping halves that contain intricate and delicate markings. The picture was obtained with new video enha... Read More

A colour-enhanced scanning electron micrograph image showing a cluster of Clostridium difficile on a surface. Clostridium difficile is a species of Gram-positive bacteria that causes severe diarrhea and other intestinal disease when competing bacteria in the gut flora have been wiped out by anti... Read More

This sculpture made of purple and clear glass beads depicts bacteriophage Phi174, a virus that infects bacteria. It rests on a surface that portrays an adaptive landscape, a conceptual visualization. The ridges represent the gene combinations associated with the greatest fitness levels of the vi... Read More

Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil-living amoeba. A group of 100,000 form a mound as big as a grain of sand.

The hereditary information is carried on six chromosomes with sizes ranging from 4 to 7 Mb resulting in a total of about 34 Mb of DNA, a multicopy 90 kb extrachromosomal element that h... Read More