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Tag Archives: bacteria
Inflammation: An unsuspected killer
Inflammation: An unsuspected killer. One in a series of posts discussing the impact of ten topics framed by ‘Insights of the Decade’ from the December 17, 2010 special issue of Science Magazine: Inflammation, climatology, tricks of light, alien planets, the microbiome, cell development, Martian water, the DNA time machine, cosmology and epigenetics. Lists of a [...]
Posted in Impact: Major Disease Cures Also tagged Alzheimers, atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, inflammation, Parkinsons, Type II Leave a comment
Biogeology: A deep subject
Way down deep, below the lowest depths of the oceans, below the floor of the seas – in the rock of the ocean crust – there exists a world with life. It’s been known for some time that bacteria can live in rock. According to the research done by Martin Fisk and colleagues at the [...]
Posted in News: Exogenous Life Also tagged Atlantis Massif, biogeochemistry, biogeology, Enceladus, Europa, Io, Mars, rock life, Titan 1 Comment
NDM-1: Not a ‘superbug’ but possibly worse
The idea – and reality – that bacteria can develop immunity to a broad spectrum of treatment is not new. Drug resistant strains of tuberculosis have been a problem for decades. Doctors worry that over-treatment with antibiotics is leading to the evolution of the drug resistant strains of many diseases. The worst case is the [...]
Graphene oxide: Nanotechnology with an eco-friendly end
It isn’t often (like almost never) that a new technology with potential impact on the environment comes with its own natural solution. According to two papers published by scientists from Rice University (Texas, USA), this is the case with graphene oxide. Graphene, a form of carbon, can be simply described as a form of graphite [...]
Posted in Impact: Nanotechnology Also tagged carbon, ecology, environment, graphene, graphene oxide, green, nanotechnology, Shewanella Leave a comment
Fingered by hand bacteria
Over the last couple of decades it’s become almost routine to identify people with DNA. In the past few years, it’s been shown that bacteria on the skin, or in the gut, can be as individual as genetic code. Now a study from the University of Colorado (Boulder, USA) opens the door to forensic (legal [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Also tagged bacterial signature, DNA, forensics, sequencing Leave a comment
Life on Mars, if it exists, is below the surface
Is there life on Mars? We don’t know yet. If there is, it isn’t very big. In fact, if there’s (still) any life at all, it will be bacteria or something even more primitive and small. Whatever there is, it’s also not likely to be on the surface. That’s not because of the cold; it’s [...]
Posted in News: Exogenous Life Also tagged astrobiology, DNA, environment, extremophiles, LUCA, Mars, microbes, panspermia, UV 1 Comment
Cracking the bacterial immune system
Until a few years ago, biologists did not know that bacteria have their own immune system. It was known that most bacteria are killed by invading viruses, called bacteriophages, and it wasn’t a stretch to imagine that bacteria had developed some way of combating the attacks, but the details of such an immune system were [...]
Posted in News: Cell Biology Also tagged bacteriophage, CAS genes, DNA, immune system, proteins, RNA Leave a comment
Fossil evidence in Mars meteorite revisited, or, IT was LIFE!!!
When the 13,000 year-old Alan Hills (ALH84001) meteorite was first analyzed back in 1996 it caused a sensation. LIFE had existed on Mars!!! The media played the story, of course. Unfortunately, the evidence for fossilized organisms in the meteorite was inconclusive, that is, it could be interpreted in different ways. Most scientists decided that what [...]
Posted in News: Exogenous Life Also tagged ALH84001, exogenous life, fossils, life on Mars, Mars, NASA Leave a comment
Important bacteria protein-DNA link discovered
It’s been known for a while that some bacteria produce proteins that can manipulate (turn on or off) the DNA of living cells. To find out which protein and how it works has been an area of intense research. Much of the significant work has been with plant disease bacteria, and now it appears that [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Also tagged DNA, genetics, nucleotide binding, plant pathology, TAL protein Leave a comment
The microbiome: Our life in common with microorganisms