Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
Category: Microbiology
THE human gut contains a diverse community of bacteria which colonize the large intestine in the days following birth and vastly outnumber our own cells. These intestinal microflora constitute a virtual organ within an organ and influence many bodily functions....
Posted by Mo at 7:55 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Microbiology
Entomologists working in the Brazilian rain forest have discovered four new species of a parasitic fungus that manipulates its host's behaviour.
Posted by Mo at 9:25 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Microbiology
Fox 10 News has a rather gruesome story about the removal of a live parasitic worm from a woman's brain, which is accompanied by a film clip containing footage of the surgical procedure. As the film explains, the woman,...
Posted by Mo at 9:31 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
The brain is an organ of staggering complexity, consisting of hundreds of billions of cells (and tens of thousands of different cell types) which form millions of specialized circuits that are organized into thousands of discrete areas. Neuroscientists have a...
Posted by Mo at 6:49 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Microbiology
Over the past few days, there have been numerous scary news stories about a "brain-eating" amoeba that has killed six boys and young men this year (three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona, the most recent case...
Posted by Mo at 8:46 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Microbiology
A significant proportion of people with HIV/ AIDS develop neurological symptoms, such as impaired co-ordination, personality changes, deficits in learning and memory, and mania and depression. HIV-associated dementia is difficult to treat; although highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has led...
Posted by Mo at 11:48 AM • • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Animal Behaviour
(From the Gilbert Lab at the University of Texas) This carpenter ant (genus Campanotus), and the bullet ant in the first film clip below (Paraponera clavata), have fallen victim to parasitic fungi of the genus Cordyceps, which manipulate the...
Posted by Mo at 5:55 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Microbiology
From the BBC: Microbes locked in Antarctic ice for as much as eight million years have been "resuscitated" in a laboratory. Researchers melted five samples of ice from the debris-covered glaciers of Antarctica which range in age from 100,000...
Posted by Mo at 7:57 PM • • 0 TrackBacks
Orac 02.13.2012
ERV 11.26.2011
PZ Myers 02.02.2012
Orac 01.26.2012
Jason Rosenhouse 02.12.2012
