MicrobeWorld

In “A Life of Its Own," Michael Specter explores the opportunities and challenges posed by the emerging field of synthetic biology. “No scientific achievement has promised so much, and none has come with greater risks or clearer possibilities for deliberate abuse,” Specter writes. Synthetic biolo... Read More

A killer fungus may break the chemical stalemate that is hampering anti-malaria efforts.

Mosquitoes that carry malaria are becoming increasingly resistant to insecticides. In theory, spraying two different types of insecticide at once postpones resistance, as bugs that resist one type are kil... Read More

If you are studying the gut flora of infants you would save them to run samples on a microarray, which I doubt is what our colleague will be doing with his daughter's after her debut later this afternoon. The article linked above discusses a study (http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10... Read More

CBCNews.ca has a really great interactive time line that "illustrates some key dates in the evolution of the first pandemic of the 21st century."

Click "source" to view. Read More

MRSA, the microbe also known as the flesh eating bacterium, not only infects humans, but can also be transmitted from people to animals and then back again.

"In a study this summer in The American Journal of Infection Control, Elizabeth A. Scott and her colleagues at the Center for Hygiene a... Read More

In a finding with potentially major implications for identifying a viral cause of prostate cancer, researchers at the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools have reported that a type of virus known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in... Read More

A harmless shard from the shell of a common childhood virus may halt a biological process that kills a significant percentage of battlefield casualties, heart attack victims and oxygen-deprived newborns, according to research presented Sunday, September 6, 2009, at the 12th European meeting on c... Read More

Ten years ago, Chicago hospitals were at ground zero when the deadly MRSA bacterium, till then confined to hospitals, learned some new tricks and spilled out into the community. This year, researchers from DOE's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago are teaming up to develop... Read More

University of Central Florida Microbiology Professor Keith Ireton has uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that plays an important role in the spread of a deadly food-borne bacterium.

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can cause pregnant women to lose their fetuses and trigger fat... Read More

Studies of the new swine flu vaccine show children 10 and older will need just one shot for protection against swine flu — but younger kids almost certainly will need two.

Protection kicks in for older children within eight to 10 days, just like it does for adults, the National Institutes of ... Read More

J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., founder, president and chairman of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), has been named a recipient of this year's National Medal of Science. Dr. Venter will be awarded the Medal from President Obama on October 7 at a White House ceremony.

The National Medal of Science... Read More

More than three million doses of swine flu vaccine will be available by the first week of October, a little earlier than had been anticipated, federal health officials announced Friday.

But nearly all those 3.4 million doses will be of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not recommended fo... Read More

Can taking a shower be hazardous to your health? Perhaps so, according to a study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We’re not talking about anything as mundane as slipping and falling in a wet, soapy shower stall. Nope, this is much creepier. We’re... Read More

A study of how HIV mutates in response to immune system pressure by Emory Vaccine Center researchers shows that the virus can take several escape routes, not one preferred route.

The results are online and scheduled for publication in the September issue of the journal Public Library of Scien... Read More

WHETHER you call the current financial situation a setback, a crisis or a meltdown, it has had at least one positive effect: financiers are searching for new ways to deal with complex risk. I have a suggestion for them. Look to nature, where analogous problems have already been solved by enginee... Read More

You really can drive across country on algae and a 700-pound battery pack, or so proved the crew behind the documentary Fuel . Embarking on September 8 and pulling into New York City today, just in time for the film's premiere, the Algaeus covered 3,750 miles.

"It got 147 miles-per-gallon in ... Read More

VACCINATING people against swine flu may be a lot easier than anyone dared hope, as it turns out that people have an unexpected degree of immunity to the pandemic now sweeping the world.

A seasonal flu in the same H1N1 family as the pandemic virus has been circulating since 1977, but until no... Read More

The first doses of swine flu vaccine may all be the nasal spray version, government health officials said Friday.

The government has said a trickle of vaccine will be available in early October, but on Friday they defined the size of that trickle — an estimated 3.4 million doses.

Currently... Read More

DNA test results and other evidence have now established that an outbreak of illness involving at least 35 people, the majority children and teens, was linked to drinking unpasteurized milk. Wisconsin food safety officials are cautioning consumers not to drink raw milk and farmers not to sell it... 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