Microbiology
Category archives for Microbiology
Deep sea carbon cycling: microbial action, and mystery
Posted by Heather Olins on February 15, 2011 I mentioned this study a while ago, and promised a more detailed explanation. I apologize for how long it has taken, but here it is. How excited was I to learn that the most recent issue of Nature Geoscience had a special focus on deep sea carbon cycling? I admit it, pretty excited. I was…
Well I never…
Posted by Kevin Bonham on February 1, 2011 PalMD has a great post about vaginas. More specifically, about the wonderful commensal bacteria that help keep a vagina at the proper pH, and what happens when they get booted out: From time to time, this normal balance of bacteria is disrupted. When this happens, the normally dominant Lactobacilli are outgrown by various anaerobic bacteria.…
Viruses throw wrenches in the gears of the immune system
Posted by Kevin Bonham on January 25, 2011 I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – pathogens are devious little bastards: Discovery of a Viral NLR Homolog that Inhibits the Inflammasome In order to respond to a virus, a cell first has to recognize that it’s there. There are a lot of ways the cell tries to do this – some…
Domesticated Phages
Posted by Kevin Bonham on January 11, 2011 There’s more to learn about the viruses that infect bacteria over at Discover. This time, it’s Ed Yong talking about the bits of DNA that can be leftover in bacterial genomes from viral infections, and how they might actually be helping their hosts: These captives are called cryptic prophages and they can make up a…
Top Science Stories of 2010: 6 Degrees of Microbial Separation
Posted by Heather Olins on January 5, 2011 Thanks to Viktor at StrippedScience for letting me borrow his microbe New Year’s cartoon! Happy New Year! I was catching up on my blog reader and came across the NatureNews top science stories of 2010. I was curious how many of these stories would have something to do with microbes… turns out quite a few…
An so proceed ad infinitum
Posted by Kevin Bonham on January 4, 2011 The vermin only teaze and pinch Their foes superior by an inch. So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite ‘em, And so proceed ad infinitum*: -Jonathan Swift Even though I study the immune system, it always amazes me just how many creatures make…
Energy Scales
Posted by Kevin Bonham on December 29, 2010 Bacteria are tiny. Compared to our cells, they can seem insignificant. There are about ten times more bacteria cells in your gut *right now* than there are human cells in your entire body, but they only make up about 5% of your mass. They’re tiny, but they’re successful – they live in places we can’t,…
Weekend Review: All about the Gut – Diet and Immunity
Posted by Kevin Bonham on December 26, 2010 As Boston gets buried under a layer of snow (wooo! blizzard!), the the Weekend Review makes a return with one of my favorite topics: gut microbes. The fields of immunology, microbiology, nutrition and metabolism are rapidly converging. Here we expand on a diet-microbiota model as the basis for the greater incidence of asthma and autoimmunity…
[guest post: Alex Bradley, PhD] Arsenate-based DNA: a big idea with big holes
Posted by Heather Olins on December 5, 2010 In the wake of the NASA excitement over the new arsenic study, and my promise to give a detailed review of the paper itself, I have recruited a colleague with strong opinons about the work, a solid chemistry and microbiology background, and “Dr.” in front of his name to share his analysis. I will be…
NASA Press Conference – quick summary
Posted by Heather Olins on December 2, 2010 Arsenic it is… but the point really isn’t arsenic. That is what Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon stressed at the end of the NASA press conference today – that the research being unveiled is just opening the door to other unexamined possibilities for life. She said “I am interested in exceptions, why aren’t things constants in nature?”…
