MicrobeWorld

Governments have been stockpiling the antiviral drug oseltamivir as a defence against pandemic flu. Now the medical journal BMJ has claimed there is insufficient evidence that the drug prevents serious complications of flu to warrant the policy. In a series of articles, it says the Swiss pharmac... Read More

Contact lens wearers may remember headlines from a few years ago about molds that can live on the lenses and may cause debilitating eye infections.

What lens users may not have known: Agricultural Research Service (ARS) experts at the agency's National Center for Agricultural Utilization Rese... Read More

German researchers have worked out how the malaria parasite is able to burrow through the skin and into our body.

The study of sporozoites — the highly mobile stages of the malaria parasite — is published in the January issue of the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

"We show that sporozoite mot... Read More

"Science and Nature have ended their historic battle for the world’s best basic science articles, agreeing to cease their respective publications and co-launch an open-access, online-only journal with an innovative democratic peer-review system, sources at both journals revealed this morning.

... Read More

From the Washington Post: "Health Secretary Jose Cordova says nonessential federal government offices will be closed from May 1-5. He said all nonessential private businesses must also close for that period but essential services like transport, supermarkets, trash collection, hospital will rema... Read More

Corn Amylase is a genetically modified crop developed by the Swiss firm Syngenta Seeds that was developed specifically for the production of ethanol. The seed itself has been modified with a heat-resistant protein from deep-sea bacteria to produce a kernel easily converted to ethanol without add... Read More

A New York Times ongoing series about the state and impact of polluted waters in the United States features a story about farm waste in Morrison, WI and it's impact on local well water.

"In Morrison, more than 100 wells were polluted by agricultural runoff within a few months, according to lo... Read More

Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Cliff answer questions from listeners on swine influenza origins, transmission, virulence, and vaccines, HIV and AIDS, and more.

Host links Read More

A la búsqueda de los patógenos de los cultivos

Algunos temen que los terroristas fijen su objetivo en los alimentos e infecten deliberadamente cultivos tales como el maíz y e... Read More

You probably saw some rising happen in the straws containing Control dough. This is because flour is a starch. Starches contain glucose, a form of sugar (this is why a saltine cracker tastes a little sweet if you let it sit on your tongue for a while; the enzymes in your saliva break the crac... Read More

Experiments led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have demonstrated that normally friendly ants can turn against each other by exploiting the chemical cues they use to distinguish colony-mates from rivals.

The new study, to be published on October 28, in the open-acces... Read More

Dr. Mike Leahy is a Virologist and an adventure junkie. Now he has his own show called Bite Me where he combines his work with his passions which leads to one very scary outcome, "up-close-and-personal encounters with Earth's most dangerous creatures."

Check out the show on the Travel Channel... Read More

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new, carbon-based nanoscale platform to electrically detect single DNA molecules.

Using electric fields, the tiny DNA strands are pushed through nanoscale-sized, atomically thin pores in a graphene nanopore platform that ultimatel... Read More

Algae also play an important role as the foundation for the aquatic food chain. All higher aquatic life forms depend either directly or indirectly on microscopic gardens of algae.

Most unicellular algae live in water, some dwell in moist soil, and others join ... Read More

An eco-friendly bacteria that kills invasive mussels will be tested for the first time in Canada at the Decew Falls hydro plant. Ontario Power Generation will monitor the specialized microbe's ability to kill zebra and quagga mussels, which threaten power production at the combined 170-megaw... Read More

H and E stained lung sections of patient from whom the legionella pneumophila was isolated stained with CDC's modification of the Dieterle silver impregnation procedure. Note the small, blunt pleomorphic intracellular and extracellular bacilli which stain brown to black against a pale yellow bac... Read More

While schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder that has its roots in genetic changes, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have uncovered a potentially new culprit for some of the condition's most common symptoms.

Reporting in the journal Schizophrenia Research, the psychiatrists de... Read More

There is a new set of photographs on the Small Things Considered blog that are quite interesting. All of them look as if they originate from the 1950's to 1960's decades. ... Read More

Under a plate magnification of 37,800X, this colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) depicted the A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1N1) virus, while in the virus’ first developmental passage through a chicken egg. Read More

A common plant virus lures aphids to infected plants by making the plants more attractive, but when the insects taste the plant, they quickly leave for tastier, healthier ones. In the process, the insects rapidly transmit the disease, according to Penn State entomologists.

"The virus improves... Read More