Still Waters: Skin disease microbe tracked to ponds, swamps

Knowing the natural hiding place of a disease-causing pathogen is the first step to defeating it. It has taken 60 years of trying, but scientists have finally found the home environment of the microbe that causes Buruli ulcer, a devastating skin disease.

Researchers now report isolating the culprit, Mycobacterium ulcerans, from insects nabbed in a stagnant pond in West Africa.