5,519 results
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Bacterial Snitch: Species competes by telling on another
A bacterial species that typically colonizes people's noses may win out over another bacterium by tattling to the host's immune system.
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Tug-of-War: How bacteria prevent host-cell suicide
New research suggests that bacteria may keep the cells they infect alive longer by tugging on the cells' membranes.
- Animals
Killer Flatworm: New species hunts with puffer fish toxin
A newly described marine flatworm from Guam hunts with the same toxin that a puffer fish uses. With video.
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Yellow color gives microbe its power
The bright-yellow pigment that tints the bacteria that cause staph infections is pivotal to the microbe's virulence.
- Health & Medicine
Acne medicines can be a pain in the throat
Treatment with antibiotics for acne might predispose an individual to getting severe upper respiratory infections.
- Health & Medicine
Oral Exams
Scientists are taking advantage of the components in spit to develop new, saliva-based diagnostic tests.
- Earth
Wetland Blanket: Volcanic sulfates may curb methane emission
Field studies hint that the deposition on wetlands of sulfate compounds from the atmosphere could temporarily stifle those regions' natural emissions of methane.
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Sugar Coated: Molecular dress-up may disguise gut bacteria
The mammalian immune system doesn't attack native gut bacteria as foreign invaders because the bacteria disguise themselves with sugar molecules.
- Tech
Speed Reader: Gene sequencing gets a boost
The first lab-ready technology to challenge the dominant gene-sequencing technique known as the Sanger method taps miniaturization and parallel reading of hundreds of thousands of DNA stretches to boost speed and slash cost.
- Paleontology
First Steps
Using materials as diverse as lobster eggs, dead birds, and the headless carcass of a rhinoceros, scientists are conducting experiments that scrutinize the first steps of the fossilization process.
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19537
I usually tend to downplay worries about research in genetics, but I was quite concerned after reading “Expanding the genetic code” (SN: 4/2/05, p. 222). The researchers surely have plans to keep whatever they create contained. But adding a fifth base to the DNA of bacteria with a genetic mutation rate 10,000 times that of […]
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19535
I usually tend to downplay worries about research in genetics, but I was quite concerned after reading this article. The researchers surely have plans to keep whatever they create contained. But adding a fifth base to the DNA of bacteria with a genetic mutation rate 10,000 times that of normal bacteria seems unnecessarily dangerous. I […]
