The discovery that ancient rocks harbored microbial life deep below the seafloor confirms a long-standing hypothesis that interactions between mantle rocks and seawater can create potential for life. The scientists behind the discovery, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Virginia Tech, and the University of Bremen, have reported their findings in theProceedings of the […]
High-fat diets have long been known to increase the risk for heart disease and stroke, but there is new evidence to link diets high in fat with a range of psychiatric disorders. Central to this newly recognized mind-gut relationship are the microorganisms that inhabit our intestines – the gut microbiome. Increasingly, scientists are finding the […]
Traits such as eye color and height are passed from one generation to the next through the parents’ DNA, right? Not according to a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who have shown that the DNA of bacteria that live in the mother’s body can pass a trait […]
Medical researchers in Finland hope that their discovery of a significant variation in the gut microbiota of Parkinson’s sufferers could be used to improve diagnostics for the disease and perhaps even prevent it. The new research was made possible by funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Finnish Parkinson Foundation. […]
Scientists from the University of Leeds (UK) have discovered that airborne germ counts are 27 times higher around air dryers in comparison with the air around paper towel dispensers. Their study, published in theJournal of Hospital Infection, shows that both jet and warm air hand dryers spread bacteria into the air and onto users and […]
Scientists conducting a series of experiments on the International Space Station say that some micro-organisms can survive for long periods exposed to the hostile environment of outer space. The findings, published in theAstrobiology Journal, lend weight to the concept of panspermia, where life on Earth emerged from bacterial colonies transported on comets and asteroids. The […]
Today, obesity is considered to be undesirable, but in the past getting more fat and more energy from the diet might have been important to survival in cold places. This, according to a new study in the journalBiology Letters, might explain the dramatic differences in gut bacteria observed in people from different latitudes. Researchers at […]
A study presented at the 2014 American Society for Microbiology meeting adds to the growing body of evidence that multiple sclerosis may be triggered by Clostridium perfringens, a spore-forming bacterium that is one of the most common causes of foodborne illness. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system characterized by […]
Animals’ scent posts may seem to be simply stinky, but new molecular surveys show they actually convey a veritable encyclopedia of information about the animals that left them. These intriguing findings – which could suggest a way to manipulate animal behaviour – are based on analyses of scent from groups of hyenas in Kenya. “When […]
Using a DC-8 aircraft to scoop-up air samples from the troposphere, scientists have identified significant numbers of living microorganisms – mostly bacteria – six miles above the Earth’s surface. The work, detailed in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is of interest to atmospheric scientists as the microorganisms could play a role in forming […]
