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Home > News > Tags > microorganisms
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Stories about: microorganisms |
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Social norms have unfortunately placed a negative connotation on mucus, despite the substance's extremely important role in our bodies. Experts are currently trying to decipher the advanced mechanisms through which the stuff enables us to smell, reproduce, and avoid infections.
Katharina Ribbeck, a biological ... |
26 April 2012
07:56 GMT |
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While massive asteroid impacts have the potential to cause global extinction events on the surface, they are apparently good news for microorganisms living below Earth's crust, a new study has uncovered.
The conclusion came after scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland conducted a study of an anc... |
17 April 2012
06:01 GMT |
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A team of scientist that published a new opinion piece in the March 27 issue of the journal mBio argues that the Black Queen Hypothesis (BQH) helps explain why some microbes continue to live and multiply even when they lose an ability that is considered to be critical for their survival. Instances of this happening ... |
30 March 2012
14:01 GMT |
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A research conducted on Lake Untersee in April 2011 revealed the existence of impressive mounds of photosynthetic microbial stromatolites, which are layered accretionary structures made up of microorganisms. The finding may help scientists figure out how the first lifeforms survived on Earth.
The study was carried o... |
29 March 2012
15:01 GMT |
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Investigators at the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) announce the development of a new synthetic biology method for improving biodiesel fuel production from natural sources. This means producing biofuels from bacteria.
Unlike conventional diesel, which is extracted and process... |
26 March 2012
11:02 GMT |
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A new discovery made in the Atacama Desert, the driest place on the planet, shows the numerous microorganisms can endure even in the harshest conditions. An international collaboration of experts was recently able to find a significant concentration of life just beneath the desert surface.
At first glance, the soil... |
18 February 2012
04:52 GMT |
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Scientists at the University of Washington and MIT believe that microbes should be added to the plethora of variables that are accounted for in climate models. Biology should be added to fields such as atmospherics, oceanography, seismology, geology, physics and chemistry.Each computer model seeking to determine how ... |
15 February 2012
11:25 GMT |
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I've always found it fascinating how complex approaches to treating diseases – such as fooling the immune system into attacking cells it was supposed to attack in the first place – are still more efficient that even more complex methods, such as developing brand-new class of drugs.
One of the things... |
9 February 2012
10:32 GMT |
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Underwater caves may hold the answer to one of the most important questions in the world – how did life evolve? A particular set of such caves, located in the Bahamas, may be especially suited to answer this question, investigators explain.
In addition to revealing the intricate history our planet has, invest... |
7 February 2012
06:20 GMT |
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Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming discovered that tears contain molecules called lysozymes, which act as disinfectants, destroying bacteria that are far larger in size. A group of investigators at the University of California in Irvine (UCI) was recently able to figure out precisely how tears are able to do that.
Ha... |
20 January 2012
04:54 GMT |
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Much to the surprise of researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), pigs are apparently capable of allowing bacteria inside them to become antibiotic-resistant in less than two weeks. At this rate, the microorganisms can out-pace anything we throw at them.
It takes a very long time for researc... |
17 January 2012
10:08 GMT |
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The only ecosystem left to explore on our world is also one that could finally allow us to better understand our planet. Inside the igneous ocean crust that lies beneath the sediments of the ocean floor, species of microorganisms live in conditions that have not changed for eons. Needless to say, analyzing these li... |
9 January 2012
11:07 GMT |
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A team of experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announces the development of a new model that can simulate the way unicellular bacteria and multicellular microbes distribute energy throughout their bodies.
The balance between energy production and expenditure inside any living organism is calle... |
4 January 2012
07:32 GMT |
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If the resilience of Earth's lifeforms is any indication, then organisms could survive on Mars as well. Granted, not all areas of Red Planet may be inhabitable, but researchers think that lava tubes may provide the necessary environment for life to endure.
There are two main ways for Mars to have acquired life.... |
3 January 2012
09:49 GMT |
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The Jovian moon Io is one of the most promising candidates for supporting life in the solar system. Other celestial bodies, such as Jupiter's Europa and the Saturnine moons Enceladus and Titan, are also good candidates, but only Io could potentially support extreme lifeforms.
One of the things that separate th... |
28 December 2011
10:55 GMT |
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Researchers have recently determined that two particular locations on Earth – the Upper Dry Valleys of Antarctica, and the Atacama Desert of Chile – are exquisite locations to conduct studies on how other worlds might look like on the surface. Between themselves, these two regions display all the environm... |
23 November 2011
11:05 GMT |
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A collaboration of investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard University announces the discovery of the oldest known ciliate fossils. These remnants belong to a class of microorganisms that currently comprises of about 7,000 species.
The most commonly-known ciliate is the par... |
16 November 2011
09:45 GMT |
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A group of investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Biological Engineering says that bacteria living today can easily pass on genes between each other.
The reason why this should be troubling to us is that the microorganism... |
31 October 2011
06:10 GMT |
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In a study published in the October 17 issue of the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the Emery School of Medicine and the Harvard University propose a new possible explanation for why bioluminesence develops in the world's oceans. Sailors and others at sea r... |
19 October 2011
03:17 GMT |
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About 600 million years ago, the planet was covered in ice. A huge glaciation turned our world into what experts plastically refer to as snowball Earth. Now, investigators at the University of Washington are going out of their way to determine how life managed to survive during those tough times.
“Under tho... |
13 October 2011
06:48 GMT |
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A group of investigators has recently demonstrated in a new scientific study that it is entirely possible extremophiles originating from Earth may endure on the Jovian moon Europa. Past studies have shown that meteorite impacts can take these microorganisms to other worlds relatively unharmed.
Researchers also de... |
3 October 2011
14:01 GMT |
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A group of researchers in the United States announces the development of two new types of microbes, which could be used to produce a type of advanced biofuel capable of replacing the standard diesel used in vehicle engines today.
The new chemical has a wide variety of advantages over existing fuel, such as for ex... |
28 September 2011
05:03 GMT |
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Decades ago, researchers discovered that ribonucleic acid (RNA) can act as a catalyst for certain chemical reactions in the cell. This led to a train of thought that ultimately showed the molecule to precede more-complex DNA by eons. Now, experts want to build a cell to prove this is true.
Howard Hughes Medical In... |
23 September 2011
16:31 GMT |
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For many years, researchers have been wondering why is it that certain microorganisms appeared to be capable of producing electricity while they were cleaning up nuclear wastes and toxic metals. The results of a new investigation finally shed light on the mechanisms involved in this ability.
The work was carried ... |
7 September 2011
08:32 GMT |
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When the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity will launch later this year, it will carry with it a rather high risk of cross-contamination. The term is used to refer to instances when life indigenous to a celestial body makes its way to another cosmic object.
In the early days of space exploration, NASA ... |
6 September 2011
03:02 GMT |
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The group of researchers that announced the creation of the world's first synthetic genome in May 2010 argued at a recent event that colonizing Mars could be made a lot easier and cheaper with the help of synthetic, genetically-engineered microorganisms.Expert geneticist Craig Venter's team explains that su... |
19 August 2011
08:15 GMT |
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About 2.3 billion years ago, vast amounts of molecular oxygen (O2) made their way into Earth's atmosphere, during an time known as the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE). New data suggest that the molecules existed before that time, trapped in oceanic “oxygen oases.” At this time, the gas makes up for mor... |
16 August 2011
08:29 GMT |
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A collaboration of investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard University announces the development of a new technology that enables them to rewrite the genetic code of a living cell with great proficiency and speed. This approach enables researchers to create large-scale edits ... |
15 July 2011
10:42 GMT |
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Scientists announce the discovery of the first strain of gonorrhea that is completely invulnerable to all available strains of antibiotics. The bacteria that causes this condition – Neisseria gonorrhoeae – was known to have resistance to some drugs, but experts did not know how much it had evolved. The ba... |
11 July 2011
06:01 GMT |
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The conclusions of a new scientific study provide the first evidence that microbes can indeed survive being blasted into space, traveling for millions of years, reentering an atmosphere, and then making their way to the surface of an alien body. Until now, experts have hypothesized that this is possible, but investig... |
7 July 2011
10:41 GMT |
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In a study published only recently, a researcher indicates that space contamination flows from the Earth to the surrounding environment, and not the other way around. The work draws an interesting parallel to the case of the Apollo 11 crew. The astronauts were locked up in quarantine for no less than three weeks afte... |
5 July 2011
05:22 GMT |
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A group of investigators from the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities managed to prove that highly-structured organisms can develop from inferior ones, when they watched single-celled microbes in a test tube evolve into multicellular lifeforms. The latter were prefect capable of reproduction, which means that they... |
23 June 2011
10:17 GMT |
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When humans finally make their way to Mars, they will not only have to make sure that they don't get contaminated with anything Martian, but also that they do not contaminate the planet with their spacesuits. Ensuring this will not happen is however a very difficult task. Earth's microorganisms are known to... |
21 June 2011
10:06 GMT |
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Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by biologist Jeroen Saeij, are now hard at work, analyzing the differences in toxicity between various Toxoplasma gondii strains. The work could help save thousands of lives yearly.Toxoplasma, as a parasitic microorganism, infects no less than 33 per... |
17 June 2011
05:52 GMT |
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German researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPIEP) are currently in the process of developing plasma-based sanitizing technologies, which they say could bring the problem of hospital-acquired bacteria infections under control.Plasma is a state of matter consisting of electrically char... |
27 May 2011
04:51 GMT |
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Two research teams have simultaneously and independently arrived at the conclusion that airborne microorganisms can influence Earth's weather, and (to some extent) even its climate.
In presentations made on Monday, May 24, at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in New Orleans, representatives from th... |
25 May 2011
02:54 GMT |
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Scientists in the United States have recently determined the answer to an ages-old question – which came first, the animal nervous system or its components? Experts in Texas say that indeed at least one of the vital components in the animal nervous system developed ahead of the larger structure did.In a series ... |
18 May 2011
06:00 GMT |
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Recent studies of the deep ocean have revealed the existence of a species of microorganisms that can endure in extreme conditions. These organisms provide investigators with a view on how life on other planets or moons might look like. The Saturnine moon Enceladus and the Jovian moon Europa are both covered in a thic... |
16 May 2011
05:43 GMT |
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In a recent scientific investigation, experts managed to identify the oldest and most peculiar group of fungi ever studies. The microorganisms can apparently live without being surrounded by a rigid cell wall, and they are very good at camouflaging themselves. Even on some of the most advanced microscopes today, the ... |
12 May 2011
03:41 GMT |
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Experts have recently begun assessing the extent to which life may be capable of surviving on other worlds by analyzing the limits within which it does so here on Earth. Researchers are now focusing their attention of ancient microbes living under the Earth's crust.
While the role that these animals play in u... |
4 May 2011
07:35 GMT |
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Astrobiologists now believe that life may in fact be able to survive, or even thrive, in a much wider array of environments than previously thought. The conclusion was drawn from a study that shows microbes to be largely unaffected by the gravitational forces that act upon them. In other words, it would appear that t... |
26 April 2011
03:00 GMT |
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An Antarctic lake located under miles of solid ice has just revealed one of its secrets, when researchers found a colony of bacteria that apparently first developed some 140,000 years ago. Its cells are apparently still alive today, and experts expect many similar instances to be discovered.The thing about this resea... |
21 April 2011
08:43 GMT |
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Experts have found that an extremely odd community of microorganisms is currently devouring the wreck of the Titanic, the large cruise ship in the world at its time. The wreckage is 99 years old, and is in danger of disappearing soon. Studies conducted starting in 2000 revealed the existence of a bacterial complex th... |
14 April 2011
06:06 GMT |
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A collaboration of researchers has recently been awarded a large grant for studying methods that could lead to improvements in the process of biological photosynthesis. Making this process more efficient could lead to more affordable renewable energy, and also to better, cheaper biofuels. The funds, totaling around $... |
29 March 2011
04:17 GMT |
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Biologists recently published a study depicting for the first time an amazing ability that sea-ice algae have – that to engineer their icy homes in any way they see fit to ensure their survival.This is a critical ability both for them and a large number of other species living in the same habit. AS far as the A... |
4 March 2011
11:09 GMT |
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In a paper detailing a long-term study, investigators were able to demonstrate that hepatitis C infection rates among injection drug users (IDU) have maintained steady over the past years, whereas a significant reduction was recorded in the number of HIV infection cases.
The investigation, which was conducted on ... |
31 January 2011
12:31 GMT |
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A new research carried out by scientists from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital of Boston, concluded that the bacteria that colonizes the placenta during pregnancy could be linked to preterm birth and other developmental problems in newborns.In the United States, p... |
28 January 2011
05:54 GMT |
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A group of investigators has recently discovered the existence of a new species of archaebacteria inside the oceans, at a depth exceeding the height of Mount Everest. Temperatures and pressures here are way beyond anything we are accustomed to, yet somehow these creatures manage to endure.
This is the so-called h... |
18 January 2011
02:39 GMT |
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A group of experts announces the development of a new method for tracking down Escherichia coli, one of the most common microorganisms in the human body. At times, the bacteria can act up and cause problems, and so developing method for tracking and detecting it is very important.Researchers from the Purdue Universit... |
15 January 2011
07:06 GMT |
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A PhD student in the United States made arguably one of the most impressive discoveries in the field of paleobiology, when he discovered lifeforms that were more than 34,000 years old inside salt crystals collected from deep underneath the floor of Death Valley, in California. The sample in question were collected ye... |
7 January 2011
11:04 GMT |
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