Microbiologist Jo Handelsman has been named one of the “366 Days: Nature’s 10” people who “mattered” in 2012 by Nature Magazine. Handelsman, professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and a national expert on science education, was recognized for her work showing gender bias in science. (more…)
A third of Earth’s organisms live in rocks and sediments, but their lives have been a mystery
By some estimates, a third of Earth’s organisms live in our planet’s rocks and sediments, yet their lives are almost a complete mystery.
This week, the work of microbiologist James Holden of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and colleagues shines a light into this dark world.
In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they report the first detailed data on methane-exhaling microbes that live deep in the cracks of hot undersea volcanoes. (more…)
A new mouthwash developed by a microbiologist at the UCLA School of Dentistry is highly successful in targeting the harmful Streptococcus mutans bacteria that is the principal cause tooth decay and cavities.
In a recent clinical study, 12 subjects who rinsed just one time with the experimental mouthwash experienced a nearly complete elimination of the S. mutans bacteria over the entire four-day testing period. The findings from the small-scale study are published in the current edition of the international dental journal Caries Research. (more…)
