Sea turtles and whales may be the charismatic critters of the sea, but the true kingpins of the ocean make up 98 percent of the ocean’s biomass — and yet individually are too small to see with the naked eye. (more…)
AUSTIN, Texas — Some of the bacteria in our guts were passed down over millions of years, since before we were human, suggesting that evolution plays a larger role than previously known in people’s intestinal-microbe makeup, according to a new study in the journal Science. (more…)
Berkeley Lab scientist Ee-Been Goh thrives on re-engineering bacteria and mentoring students.
To see biochemist Ee-Been Goh in the lab today, figuring out how to rewire bacteria to produce biofuels, one would never guess she was once so uninterested in school that she barely made it through junior high. (more…)
AUSTIN, Texas — Scientists from The University of Texas at Austin, the Stanford University School of Medicine and two other institutions have discovered that bacteria have a system that can recognize and disrupt dangerous viruses using a newly identified mechanism involving ribonucleic acid (RNA). It is similar to the CRISPR/Cas system that captures foreign DNA. The discovery might lead to better ways to thwart viruses that kill agricultural crops and interfere with the production of dairy products such as cheese and yogurt. (more…)
The UA’s Dr. Fernando Martinez wants to know why children on Amish farms are healthier, and his research could have far-reaching implications.
Dr. Fernando Martinez’s first childhood memory was one of awaking in the middle of the night to find his mother suffering an asthma attack. His father, a physician, quelled the flare-up with a nebulizer. (more…)
AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers studying a dangerous type of bacteria have discovered that the bacteria have the ability to block both their own growth and the growth of their antibiotic-resistant mutants. The discovery might lead to better ways to fight a class of bacteria that have contributed to a growing public health crisis by becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotic treatments. (more…)
‘Souped-up’ antibiotics could give doctors an advantage over bacteria that develop immunity to medicines
We face an urgent global health problem because scientists are not developing new antibiotics as fast as bacteria are developing antibiotic resistance. (more…)
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest accidental release of oil into the ocean, with approximately 210 million gallons gushing from the blown out well. In an attempt to prevent vast quantities of oil from fouling beaches and marshes, BP applied 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersant to oil to oil released in the subsurface and to oil slicks at the sea surface. The dispersant was thought to rapidly degrade in the environment. (more…)
