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In the not too distant future each of us will be able to colonize our gut with genetically modified “smart” bacteria that detect and stamp out disease at the earliest possible moment. This scenario may sound like the premise for a sci-fi flick, but it is a very real possibility. Microbiome engin...
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In a basement laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, two roboticists have harnessed the innate sensing, swimming, and swarming abilities of bacteria to power microscopic robots. Even though their work sounds like the prologue to a dark science fiction film, Ph.D. students Elizabeth Beatti...
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Your gut is a genius. Inside it exists an astonishing ecosystem of trillions of micro-organisms—more than 10 times the number of human cells in our bodies! This ecosystem of microbes—the human gut microbiota—deeply influences our phy...
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This is fun, and although I'm sure someone will gripe about Dicksons enthusiastic response to the crayfish, it made my life easier. I think it's Paragonimuskellicoti. As for eating raw crayfish; how drunk...
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Serratia marcescens can form brilliant red colonies on LB agar due to the synthesis of the secondary metabolite prodigiosin. In the Microbiology teaching lab, we had students create pigment mutants of S. marcescens and these lovely shades of pink and white were collected for analysis.
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In a world first, researchers have found that a naturally occurring chemical attracts pregnant malaria-transmitting mosquitoes - a discovery which could boost malaria control efforts. The chemical, cedrol, found in mosquito breeding sites near Africa's Lake Victoria, could be used in traps that...
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Antibiotic drugs save lives. But we simply use them too much — and often for non-lifesaving purposes, like treating the flu and even raising cheaper chickens. The result, says researcher Ramanan Laxminarayan, is that the drugs will...
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When viruses such as influenza and Ebola jump from one species to another, their ability to cause harm can change dramatically, but research from the University of Cambridge shows that it may be possible to predict the virus's virulence by looking at how deadly it is in closely-related species
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Two of the four known groups of human AIDS viruses (HIV-1 groups O and P) have originated in western lowland gorillas, according to an international team of scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Montpellier, the University of Edinbur...
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Spider silk is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar, but efforts to spin our own have so far failed to match the real thing. Now a German research group has come up with artificial fibres that equal its toughness, which could lead to safer airbags.

Proteins from salt-loving, halophilic, microbes could be the key to cleaning up leaked radioactive strontium and caesium ions from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant incident in Japan. The publication of the X-ray structure of a beta-lactamase enzyme from one such microbe, the halophile ...
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In mid-November, a W.H.O team which aimed to prepare a number of African countries for a potential Ebola outbreak ended up identifying an outbreak of the virus which causes Lassa Fever in Benin. Preventative measures designed to stem the outbreak of Ebola were used to effectively contain the v...
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What would actually happen if only 80 percent of school-age children were vaccinated against the measles? It’s a scary thought that a new simulation from the University of Pittsburgh aims to visualize.

The ultra-small bacteria were discovered in groundwater. The sample was taken from Rifle, Colorado. The cells take on the appearance of tightly-coiled spirals. The bacterial cells are thought to be the smallest that a cell can be and still hold sufficient material to sustain life.