Microbes

Agriculture

Probiotics may protect piglets from E. coli infection

Beneficial bacteria could replace antibiotics in pig feed.

Ecosystems

Virus-blocking insects taking over Vietnamese island

Field trial tests mosquitoes that may stop the spread of dengue infection.

Microbes

Surprising metals found in microbes

Scientists discover the first case of an organism needing a rare earth element for survival.

Microbes

Microbes help hyenas send status updates

Bacteria in the animals’ waste give off fumes that let passersby know who has been there before.

Microbes

Gut bacteria can drive colon cancer development

Gut microbes may reveal who is at risk for colon cancer, a study in mice suggests.

Microbes

Bacteria starved in space grow better

Given limited resources microbes in microgravity make more new cells than their counterparts on Earth.

Microbes

Prairie microbes could aid region’s restoration

Surveying the bacteria living in the soils of grassland ecosystems may help revive the habitats.

Life

Morel mushroom may grow crop of its own

A fungus could be a farmer itself, sowing, cultivating and harvesting bacteria.

Microbes

Microbes signal deceased’s time of death

In a study using mice, germs accompany the body’s decay in a consistent time sequence.

Microbes

Horsetail spores don’t need legs to jump

Forget legs. A plant uses curly, humidity-controlled ribbons to make epic leaps.

Microbes

Let the bedbugs bite

Harold Harlan has been feeding bedbugs, intentionally, on his own blood since 1973. He keeps pint or quart jars in his home containing at least 4,000 bugs.

Animals

Malaria mosquito dosed with disease-fighting bacteria

After thousands of tries, lab gets parasite-carrying insect to catch Wolbachia.