Microbiology
News Briefs from around the World: September 2022
In case you missed it
Microbiology19 articles archived since 1845
Microbiology
Predatory Bacteria Are Fierce, Ballistic and Full of Potential
Bacterial predators fight like wolves, torpedoes and vampires, and they could provide the next antibiotics
Microbiology
A Remote-Controlled Carnivorous Plant?
Researchers design an artificial neuron that can trigger closure of a Venus flytrap.
Microbiology
Marine Microbe Lures Prey into Custom Slime Traps
These organisms’ private “mucospheres” play an outsize role in the planet’s carbon cycle
Microbiology
Acne Inflammation Discovery Could Lead to New Treatments
A key player is revealed in the acne-causing immune battle
Microbiology
Kitchen Sponges Help Breed Bacteria Better
There’s a structural reason your sponge hosts so many microbes
Microbiology
Ancient Molecule Helps Bacteria Untangle Genetic Activity
New studies reveal the complex world of bacterial epigenetics
Climate Change
Lichens Could Need More Than a Million Years to Adapt to Climate Change
The composite organisms, formed from the symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae, are crucial members of myriad ecosystems
Microbiology
Omicron’s Surprising Anatomy Explains Why It Is Wildly Contagious
Specific mutations hide the COVID-causing variant from the immune system and give it a new route into more cells
Microbiology
Bacterial Builders Churn Out Lengthy Muscle Proteins
Such proteins can be woven into resilient fibers
Epidemiology
Do Childhood Colds Help the Body Respond to COVID?
A mechanism known as “original antigenic sin” protects some people from flu. Whether it helps immune reactions to coronaviruses is still unclear
Microbiology
Gut Bacteria Change as You Get Older—and May Accelerate Aging
Microbe types in older people’s intestines are different and are linked to disease
Microbiology
These Bacteria Steal from Iron and Could Be Secretly Helping to Curb Climate Change
Photoferrotrophs have been around for billions of years on Earth, and new research suggests that they have played an outsize roll in the natural capture of carbon dioxide.
Microbiology
Engineered Bacteria Produce a Rainbow of Colors
By inserting some genes and knocking down others, scientists solved a core problem in synthetic biology
Microbiology
COVID Advances Win $3-million Breakthrough Prizes
Pioneers of mRNA vaccines and next-generation sequencing techniques are among the winners of science’s most lucrative awards
Microbiology
Watch Countless Small Worlds Pulse: From Liquid Crystals to Sea Cucumbers
Nikon’s Small World in Motion video competition is filled with moving delights.
Microbiology
Inside Millions of Invisible Droplets, Potential Superbug Killers Grow
New research has created microscopic antibiotic factories in droplets that measure a trillionth of liter in volume.
Microbiology
Hardy Microbes Hint at Possibilities for Extraterrestrial Life
Studies of extreme ecosystems on Earth can guide the search for Martian life and may reveal the fundamental limits of biology
Microbiology
Some Deep-Sea Bacteria Are So Strange, Our Immune Sensors Miss Them
These microbes are redefining our understanding of how bodies recognize potential pathogens
