Getting the upper hand against germs.
Plants learned how to fight microbes even before they moved to dry land
Although their evolutionary paths diverged very early on, liverworts and other plants use similar proteins to fight off molds.
Copper-coated uniforms for medical staff could help shred bacteria in hospitals
It’s a pretty metal solution.
The Search for Alien Life: We Have Been Looking in the Wrong Places
If there are any, aliens should be less conspicuous and charismatic-looking than most people think.
Blood DNA sequencing reveals there’s a lot more microbes living inside you — and we’ve never seen over 99% of them before
What we don’t know can’t hurt us, right? Right? Guys?..
What is antibiotic resistance: everything you need to know
Antibiotic resistance is threatening to undo a centuy’s worth of medical progress.
Fracking-only bacteria discovered in two separate wells hundreds of miles apart
Bacteria are creating whole new ecosystems in fracking wells.
Each city might have its own, unique microbes
Each city has its own distinct germ cloud comprised of a unique microbial population and distribution, according to scientists at Northern Arizona University.
Kabuno Bay microbes shed light on how iron deposits are formed
An isolated bay in the heart of East Africa offers scientists a glimpse into early Earth’s iron-rich marine environment, and lends weight to the theory that microbial activity created some of the largest iron ore deposits billions of years ago.
How many germs you can find in your home: about 9,000 different species
After they analyzed dust samples collected from 1,200 US households, researchers at University of Colorado at Boulder identified over 9,000 different species of microbes, bacteria and fungus. The exact makeup depends on where the home is located, the gender of the people living inside and whether or not pets are present.
Ancient billion-year-old water pocket discovered beneath Canadian mine may reveal how life formed
Buried deep at some 2.4 kilometers beneath the surface, in the vicinity of an underground mine near Ontario, Canada, scientists have stumbled across what may actually be the oldest water on Earth. Isolated for more than a billion years, the water pocket holds invaluable clues that may hint how ancient life formed, while also shinning hope that similar deposits may exist on
Microbes found in subglacial Antarctic lake suggest extraterrestrial life is possible
Underneath hundreds of meters of Antarctic ice lie a slew of lakes, completely isolated from the outside world, some for thousand of years. For years, scientists have been trying to imagine what life in such a system might look like, if any. Just recently an US Antarctic expedition found a small body of water huddled in eternal darkness beneath 800-metre-thick that
Newly discovered microbial lifeforms form ‘electrical cables’ on deep-sea floor
In an extremely exciting find, scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark found a type of bacteria that creates electrical currents on the sea floor. Despite the lack of air or sun light, these tiny bacteria flourish and form vast swaths of electrically pulsating multi-cellular organisms. The researchers found that the bacteria breaks down substances in deeper sediments and releases life important compounds
Scientists catalog weird microbes in your body – a few pounds of bacteria is healthy for you
By creating this microbiome catalog, researchers hope to figure out the complex interactions between the countless microbes in our bodies and our immune system. As many already know, germs are not always bad for you – in fact, they are sometimes necessary for a healthy body. But regardless how careless or careful you are with your hygiene, you are carrying
Exotic extreme microbes played a role in Earth’s early atmosphere
Some species of bacteria can survive virtually anywhere: in acids, in nuclear waste, at extremely low or high temperatures, at extreme pressures, and so on; extreme microbes that survive on gases thrown out by Siberian hot springs may have played an extremely important role in the formation of our planet’s atmosphere and its composition, a new study concludes. Extreme exotic
Microbes Plus Sugars Equals Hydrogen Fuel
The need to find out energy sources and the development of genetic and microbiology make it likely to find out bacteria or microbes which could be very useful. In this case the bacteria should be able to eat sugar or sludge and it must be team player or electrochemically active. Surviving without oxygen would be a good thing but it