MicrobeWorld

While estimates of the number of genes in the human genome is said to be around 20,000, new research estimates that if you take into account our microbiota there may be as many as 9 million genes in the human gut.

"A new concept is to consider human as a super-organism containing those microb... Read More

The National Health Board of Denmark announced that the first known case of pandemic H1N1 flu resistance to Tamiflu. Officials emphasize "there is no evidence" that the resistant virus has spread.

While the case is likely to be isolated, it calls into question the policy in most European coun... Read More

Vincent Racaniello from This Week in Virology has a great post on his site about what happens to the immune system during the initial infection of an influenza virus:

During the earliest stages of a virus infection, cytokines are produced when innate immune defenses are activated. The rapid ... Read More

News media registration for the annual infectious disease meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is now open. The 49th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) will be held September 12-15, 2009 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.
... Read More

Stanley Plotkin is Professor Emeritus at the Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania,... Read More

This article looks at key challenges when using agricultural waste as a sustainable source for biofuels to meet worldwide energy needs. Subjects include dealing with diverse cellulosic sugars and finding ways to recycle carbon dioxide back into useful biomass.
Why plants such as sugar cane and ... Read More

Researchers from Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany, have developed a new method for better diagnostic of diarrhea causing bacteria. Iit now possible to characterize and distinguish hundreds of bacteria strains in a short time. The method is based on the existence of short, repeti... Read More

Bacteriófagos al rescate
Los bacteriófagos son virus que infectan solamente a las bacterias, las “enferman” y las matan. Son la forma más numerosa de entidades biologicas existen... Read More

This is an interesting cancer treatment idea.

"Himanshu Brahmbhatt and Jennifer MacDiarmid of the company Engeneic in Sydney, Australia, had already coaxed bacteria such as E. coli into dividing at their ends, rather than in the middle. This way they produce tiny buds of cytoplasm devoid of c... Read More

The USDA has approved a new vaccine for dogs. Believed to have jumped from horses to dogs 5 years ago, H3N8 "has been a quiet undercurrent in the United States, rarely discussed except among veterinarians and dog owners in the few areas where it has struck hard: Florida, New York City’s northern... Read More

In episode 38 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello and  Read More

Microbes obviously don't have a brain and therefore are not capable of conscious thought however, "many bacteria and protists exhibit behavior that looks remarkably intelligent." Check out six of the most interesting examples of intelligent behavior demonstrated by microbes as compiled from the ... Read More

Almost certain to spark debate, Norman Pace, in this article from Microbiology Today, argues that prokaryote as a word is outdated and should be eliminated from the microbiologist's vocabulary. He doubts that you even know what the term means and says , "the notion of prokaryote was scientifical... Read More

Carl Zimmer wondered if scientists had tattoos of their science and as it turns out, many do! Check out this great collection of science tattoos. I have to admit I browsed through the whole 23 page collection, fascinated by the art of science and seeing, in some cases, the full colored beauty of... Read More

Dr. Carl Winter, a food toxicologist at University of California, Davis, sings this parody of The Eagles' "Heartache Tonight." Read More

H and E stained lung sections of patient from whom the legionella pneumophila was isolated stained with CDC's modification of the Dieterle silver impregnation procedure. Note the small, blunt pleomorphic intracellular and extracellular bacilli which stain brown to black against a pale yellow bac... Read More

The CDC report on the direct costs of nosocomial infections and costs of prevention. The last report was published in 1992 based.

From the Summary:

This report uses results from the published medical and economic literature to provide a range of estimates for the annual direct hospital co... Read More

The USDA is on point this year for the Fourth of July with reminding everyone that grilling out often requires special food handling precautions.

The chef of your household might have the skills to cook the perfect burger, but does he or she know the food safety "drills of the grill?" To hel... Read More

Now there is even more reason to be concerned about the amount and kind of antibiotic you may be too quick to consume. Besides concerns about increasing antibiotic resistant bacteria due to overuse of antibiotics, research shows that antibiotics could have a long lasting effect on the beneficial... Read More

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) has selected 71 new genomic sequencing projects for its 2010 Community Sequencing Program (CSP)—a targeted sampling of the planet’s biodiversity—to be characterized for bioenergy, climate, and environmental applications. JGI’s ... Read More