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Magazine
In the Feb. 16 SN: Robots roll into the classroom, brain zaps for severe depression, particle colliders of the future, how to walk like a tetrapod, sleepless nights boost Alzheimer's proteins and more.
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Mystery Solved
Finally, there’s a way to keep syphilis growing in the lab
07/02/2018 - 07:00 Health, Microbiology, MicrobesFor more than a century, scientists have tried to grow Treponema pallidum, the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that causes syphilis. But the stubborn spirochete has refused to thrive any place outside of a human or rabbit for more than 18 days. That doesn’t give researchers much time to study it.
“I’ve basically spent my entire career watching these organisms die,” says microbiologist Steven...
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It's Alive
How a squishy clam conquers a rock
06/22/2018 - 07:00 Animals, Physiology, MicrobesBurrowing giant clams have perfected the ship-in-a-bottle trick, and the one big thing that scientists convinced themselves couldn’t explain it, actually can.
Tridacna crocea, the smallest of the 10 or so giant clam species, grows a shell that eventually reaches the size of a large fist. Starting as youngsters, the burrowers bore into the stony mass of an Indo-Pacific coral reef,...
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Exhibit
‘Outbreak’ puts the life cycle of an epidemic on display
06/04/2018 - 07:00 Health, Microbes, AnimalsIn 1918, a pandemic of Spanish flu killed as much as 5 percent of the world’s population. A hundred years later, scientists know much more about how to prevent and treat such diseases. But in some ways, the threat of a global outbreak is greater than ever. All it takes is one plane ride for a few localized cases of a disease to become an epidemic.
A new exhibit at the Smithsonian...
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The Science Life
With a little convincing, rats can detect tuberculosis
05/14/2018 - 15:01 Animals, Microbes, HealthWhat do land mines and tuberculosis have in common? Both kill people in developing countries — and both can be sniffed out by rodents that grow up to 3 feet, head to tail.
Since 2000, the international nonprofit APOPO has partnered with Tanzania’s Sokoine University of Agriculture to train African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) to pick up the scent of TNT in land mines. By 2016...
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Science Ticker
This plastic-gobbling enzyme just got an upgrade
04/19/2018 - 07:00 Microbes, PollutionJust a few tweaks to a bacterial enzyme make it a lean, mean plastic-destroying machine.
One type of plastic, polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, is widely used in polyester clothing and disposable bottles and is notoriously persistent in landfills. In 2016, Japanese scientists identified a new species of bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis, which has a specialized enzyme that can naturally...
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Teaser
A new plastic film glows to flag food contaminated with dangerous microbes
04/17/2018 - 07:00 Materials, Microbes, HealthPathogen detectors built into plastic patches could someday spare you food poisoning.
Carlos Filipe, a chemical engineer at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and colleagues have developed a new kind of flexible film that’s coated in molecules that glow when they touch E. coli cells. This type of sensor also glows in the presence of molecules secreted by E. coli, so the material...
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News in Brief
This material uses energy from ambient light to kill hospital superbugs
04/10/2018 - 07:00 Microbes, Materials, TechnologyPHOENIX — A new material that harnesses the power of ambient light to produce bacteria-killing molecules could help stem the spread of hospital infections, including those with drug-resistant bacteria.
About 1 in 10 patients worldwide get an infection while receiving treatment at a hospital or other health care facility, according to the World Health Organization. “Contaminated hospital...
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News
A new way to make bacteria glow could simplify TB screening
02/28/2018 - 14:03 Microbes, Microbiology, BiomedicineA new molecule that reveals active tuberculosis bacteria in coughed-up mucus and saliva could simplify TB diagnoses and speed up tests for detecting strains of the disease that are resistant to drugs.
This synthetic molecule is a modified version of a sugar that TB bacteria consume to help build their cell walls. The sugar is tagged with a dye that lights up under a fluorescent...
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News
Genes could record forensic clues to time of death
02/13/2018 - 17:12 Epigenetics, Microbes, Science & SocietyDying, it turns out, is not like flipping a switch. Genes keep working for a while after a person dies, and scientists have used that activity in the lab to pinpoint time of death to within about nine minutes.
During the first 24 hours after death, genetic changes kick in across various human tissues, creating patterns of activity that can be used to roughly predict when someone died,...
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The Science Life
Here’s why so many saiga antelope mysteriously died in 2015
01/29/2018 - 07:00 Animals, Conservation, MicrobesSpring calving season for the saiga antelope of central Kazakhstan is a delight for the researchers who keep tabs on the critically endangered animals. During the day, thousands of newborn saigas lie quiet, hidden within a sea of waving grass. Mothers return twice daily to feed them. “If you come at dawn and dusk, it’s magical,” says E.J. Milner-Gulland, a conservation biologist at the...