Microbes

  1. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu can infect cats. What does that mean for their people?

    Pet owners can take precautions to avoid H5N1, such as keeping cats indoors and making sure they don’t eat raw meat or milk.

    By
  2. Health & Medicine

    Malnutrition’s effects on the body don’t end when food arrives

    Children may struggle with inflammation, a weakened immune system and gut problems. New treatments may repair some damage.

    By
  3. Health & Medicine

    Human body lice could harbor the plague and spread it through biting 

    Rats and fleas previously got all the blame, but humans’ own parasites could be involved.

    By
  4. Health & Medicine

    Genetic analyses of the bird flu virus unveil its evolution and potential

    The H5N1 outbreak in cattle is giving flashbacks to the COVID pandemic. But this time is different.

    By
  5. Health & Medicine

    Cows might host both human and bird flus

    Both kinds of influenza viruses may break into cattle cells using receptors similar to those in people, wild birds and poultry.

    By
  6. Health & Medicine

    Traces of bird flu are showing up in cow milk. Here’s what to know

    We asked the experts: Should people be worried? Pasteurization and the H5N1 virus’s route to infection suggests risks to people remains low.

    By
  7. Life

    This marine alga is the first known eukaryote to pull nitrogen from air

    An alga’s bacterial symbiote has evolved into an organelle that turns atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, making the alga unique among eukaryotes.

    By
  8. Agriculture

    Mixing up root microbes can boost tea’s flavor

    Inoculating tea plant roots with nitrogen-metabolizing bacteria enhances synthesis of theanine, an amino acid that gives tea its savoriness.

    By
  9. Planetary Science

    Bacteria that can make humans sick could survive on Mars

    Experiments suggest that common illness-causing microbes could not only survive on the Red Planet but also might be able to thrive.

    By
  10. Microbes

    Bird flu viruses may pack tools that help them infect human cells

    Bringing along their own ANP32 proteins may give avian flu viruses a jump-start on copying themselves to adapt to and infect humans and other animals.

    By
  11. Life

    How disease-causing microbes load their tiny syringes to prep an attack

    Tracking individual proteins in bacterial cells reveals a shuttle-bus system to load tiny syringes that inject our cells with havoc-wreaking proteins.

    By
  12. Life

    Bacteria fossils hold the oldest signs of machinery needed for photosynthesis

    Microfossils from Australia suggest that cyanobacteria evolved structures for oxygen-producing photosynthesis by 1.78 billion years ago.

    By