MicrobeWorld

A wide range of antibiotics given to dairy cows routinely end up on the ground and in manure lagoons, but are mostly broken down before they reach groundwater, according to a new study.

The findings should help alleviate longstanding fears that dairy farms, and the fields fertilized with thei... Read More

This episode: Trees grow their own good bacteria!











(2.6 MB, 3 minutes)

Just the story:













Post questions or comments here... Read More

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which lives in the human stomach and is associated with ulcers and gastric cancer, is shaped like a corkscrew, or helix. For years researchers have hypothesized that the bacterium's twisty shape is what enables it to survive -- and thrive -- within the stomach'... Read More

Neurological and infectious disease experts at Rush University Medical Center are testing a new drug therapy for the treatment of individuals with West Nile fever or suspected central nervous system infection due to the West Nile virus. Rush is the only site in the Midwest enrolling patients int... Read More

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday substantially lowered its often-quoted estimate of how many people die in a typical flu season, to 24,000 from 36,000.

The previous estimate, the agency said, was based on a study of the years 1990 to 1999, during which the H3N2 strai... Read More

Connor writes:

My name is Connor and I am an undergraduate (soon to graduate) Microbiology student at Oregon State University. I've recently discovered your show and I love listening to it. Especially now that it's featured on Stitcher, making it much easier for me to listen... Read More

Planes are scheduled to take to the air tomorrow night to begin spraying a swath of Southeastern Massachusetts with pesticide targeted at mosquitoes carrying eastern equine encephalitis, Governor Deval Patrick announced today at a news conference in Lakeville.

The planes, which will cover Bri... Read More

The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists.

The gruesome hallmark of the fungus's handiwork was found on the leaves of plants that grew in Messel, near Darmstadt in Germany, 48m years ago.

The finding ... Read More

The world’s victory over smallpox has had an unfortunate consequence: monkeypox cases are surging in tropical Africa.

The disease is related to smallpox, though usually less serious, although in rare cases, it too can kill, blind or scar victims. Also, it is much less likely to jump between p... Read More

The emotional pains we suffer in childhood can lead to weakened immune systems later in life, according to a new study.

Based on this new research, the amount of this immune impairment even enhances that caused by the stress of caregiving later in life.

"What happens in childhood really ma... Read More

Now that older people have prescription drug coverage from Medicare, they are using more antibiotics, a new study has found.

That may not sound surprising. But the authors of the study say it could be worrisome.

Among the drugs being taken more often, the researchers pointed out, are new ... Read More

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between pharmacy size and the likelihood of obtaining antibiotics without medical prescription at a pharmacy. In 2008 in Catalonia, two actors presented three different cases in a randomised sample of pharmacies and asked pharmacists for an a... Read More

Today, scientists announced the discovery of genetic changes that affect the spread of Influenza virus from one host to another. In a report in the current (Aug. 5, 2010) edition of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Pathogens, an international team of scientists - including members of the Seattle... Read More

A dog's indiscriminate taste is not always a positive trait. In fact, it often leads to gastrointestinal infections and consequent ailments such as diarrhea and vomiting that come from eating spoiled food. Others develop gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases that are not ... Read More

The existence of chronic Lyme disease is an issue of sharp debate within the medical community. Some health care workers who call themselves “Lyme literate” insist that chronic Lyme disease is frequently diagnosed and treated by primary care physicians. Others, however, including the American ... Read More

The number of children admitted to English hospitals with bacterial pneumonia decreased by a fifth in the two years following the introduction of a vaccine to combat the disease, according to a new study published today in the journal Thorax.

In September 2006, a vaccine known as PCV7 was int... Read More

On episode #94 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich speak with Ila Singh about the new human retrovirus XMRV, and how her laboratory is studying its association with p... Read More

Scientists say a microbe with an appetite for carbon monoxide could provide a cheap way to produce fuel from car exhaust.

Azotobacter vinelandii, a microbe found around the roots of various food plants, creates an enzyme -- vanadium nitrogenase -- that normally produces ammonia from nitrogen,... Read More

A unique experiment at Rice University that forces bacteria into a head-to-head competition for evolutionary dominance has yielded new insights about the way Darwinian selection plays out at the molecular level. An exacting new analysis of the experiment has revealed precisely how specific genet... Read More

Human clinical trials have begun on a tetravalent vaccine candidate to protect against the mosquito-borne dengue virus.

The vaccine has been in development for the last decade by scientists at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The trial... Read More