Microbes

  1. Health & Medicine

    Triclosan aids nasal invasions by staph

    The antimicrobial compound triclosan, commonly found in soaps and toothpaste, may help Staphylococcus aureus stick around.

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  2. Climate

    Ocean bacteria may have shut off ancient global warming

    Ocean-dwelling bacteria may have helped end global warming 56 million years ago by gobbling up carbon from the CO2-laden atmosphere.

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  3. Life

    Amoebas’ munching may cause diarrheal disease

    Amoebas biting and swallowing pieces of human cells may be what causes amebic dysentery, a potentially fatal diarrheal disease in the developing world.

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  4. Genetics

    Feedback

    Readers ask about Neandertal genes and electricity-generating spores and react to a fusion milestone.

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  5. Paleontology

    Microbes indicted in ancient mass extinction

    About 252 million years ago an estimated 96 percent of all species were wiped from Earth, and now scientists have a new suspect in the killing — methane-belching microbes.

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  6. Microbes

    Osmotroph

    An organism that eats by osmosis, relying on nutrients diffusing into its body from a higher concentration in its environment.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Imbalance in gut bacteria may play role in Crohn’s disease

    Identifying the onset of Crohn’s disease may best be done by looking at bacteria in the cellular linings intestinal tissue.

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  8. Microbes

    Power-packed bacterial spores generate electricity

    With mighty bursts of rehydration, bacterial spores offer a new source of renewable energy.

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  9. Animals

    It doesn’t always take wings to fly high

    Microbes, bees, termites and geese have been clocked at high altitudes, where air density and oxygen are low.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    H7N9 flu makes a comeback

    Scientists warn that the risk that the illness could spread remains.

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  11. Genetics

    Microbe and human genes influence stomach cancer risk

    When genes of the bacterium and its human host evolve together, the strain is less harmful than that same strain in a person whose ancestors didn't encounter that particular microbe.

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  12. Life

    Marine microbes shed packets of DNA, nutrients

    The world’s most abundant marine microorganism, the photosynthetic bacteria Prochlorococcus, spits out nutrient-rich vesicles into ocean waters, perhaps for genetic exchange or as a survival mechanism.

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