A biochemist with a love of microbiology, the Lab Rat enjoys exploring, reading about and writing about bacteria. Having finally managed to tear herself away from university, she now works for a small company in Cambridge where she turns data into manageable words and awesome graphs.
Using bacteria to help prevent soil erosion – guest post from the iGEM Regional Champions
This is a guest post from a member of the iGEM competition team from Imperial College London. They recently won the iGEM regional championships and will be going to Boston in November to compete for the Worldwide Championships.
Holding molecules together - van der Waals forces
The evolution of bacterial energy centres
New MolBio carnival out at Disease Prone!
Sequencing the Impossible - working with `unculturable' bacteria
Assassin snails vs. Prawn
Ancient resistance – ice-age bacteria that could fight off antibiotics
Antibiotic resistance is often seen as a modern phenomenon – an ability generated by bacteria in order to defend against the challenges of modern medicine.
Synthetic DNA - now in yeast!
Genes for antibiotic resistance
Ever since the discovery and marketing of penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, bacteria have been developing resistance to antibiotics at an alarming rate.
Bacteria That Stop at the Blue Light
MolBio carnival #14!
Air-Microbe, how bacteria fly around the world
How cytomegalovirus evades the immune system
Plague and the city
The good and the evil of antibiotics.
Useful bacteria and the end of the world
Bacterial Traitors
New MolBio Carnival up!
The latest edition of the Molecular Biology carnival is up at The MolBio hut. It’s got some great blog posts, all related to molecular biology, so well worth a look.
Hydrogen bonds: why life needs water
Making bacteria visible
For a microbiologist, viewing bacteria is rarely a problem. When I look at bacteria in the lab they are samples that I have grown specially, in aseptic conditions to stop any other bacteria getting in.
When viruses and bacteria unite!
Illnesses have a tendency to clump together. An attack of the flu can bring on bacterial lung infections; in the USA almost half of all cases of bacterial sepsis occur following viral infections in the lungs.
Using nature's machines
Communicating with electricity
Welcome to Lab Rat!
Hi, and welcome to the new home of Lab Rat here at Scientific American. I've moved here from Field of Science. My FoS blog will now cover random interesting things I find about working as a scientist as I make my way through my PhD, while this blog will cover all the exciting research and advances [...]