Microbe

Editor’s Note (3/21/23): The dangerous fungus Candida auris is spreading rapidly in hospitals and other health care facilities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Monday. Our June 2021 feature story, republished here, explains why C. auris can be so lethal and who is most at risk. It also describes why this pathogen and other deadly fungi are spreading throughout the world. It was the fourth week of June in 2020, and the middle of the second wave of the COVID pandemic in the U.S. Cases had passed…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeKeanu Reeves has responded to news that a microbe-killing molecule has been named in his honour.Last month, the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology created a new molecule that “kills so efficiently that we named it after Keanu Reeves because he, too, is extremely deadly in his roles”.Calling it “keanumycin”, scientists showed that it worked…

By growing an unusual tentacled microbe in the lab, microbiologists may have taken a big step toward resolving the earliest branches on the tree of life and unraveling one of its great mysteries: how the complex cells that make up the human body—and all plants, animals, and many single-celled organisms—first came to be. Such microbes, called Asgard archaea, have previously been cultured—once—but the advance reported today in Nature marks the first time they’ve…

Rheumatoid arthritis affects 1 in 100 people worldwide. It causes inflamed, painful and swollen joints, often in the hands and wrists, and can lead to loss of joint function as well as chronic pain and joint deformities and damage. What causes this condition has been unknown.In our recently published study, my colleagues and I found an important clue to a potential culprit behind this disease: the bacteria in your gut.What causes rheumatoid arthritis?Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, meaning it develops…

You are more likely to take a trip to the Moon than to see a microbe called Legendrea loyezae under a microscope. NASA's Apollo program has sent a total of 24 people to the Moon between 1968 and 1972.Only four people (including us) have ever found L. loyezae from its discovery in 1908 to our recently published study.Considering the expense, it makes sense that the number of people who journeyed to the Moon would be low.But peeking into the microscopic realm doesn't require a billion-dollar budget, only a microscope and…

If you needed more motivation to brush your teeth regularly, this could do the trick. Scientists have discovered that cavity-causing bacteria and fungi in saliva can team up to form “superorganisms” that can actually sprout limbs to crawl and even leap across teeth.The team, led by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, made the unexpected discovery while studying saliva samples from children with severe tooth decay. They’d noticed that two species were involved in cavity formation – the…

Living as a microbe on the Tibetan Plateau isn't easy. Frigid temperatures, high levels of solar radiation, not a lot to eat, and you'd regularly get frozen and then thawed depending on the time of year.  So, it's a bit of a surprise that in these 'extreme environmental conditions' scientists have discovered 968 species featuring a hugely diverse range of microbes. The finding comes courtesy of the first dedicated genome catalog of the glacier ecosystem."The surfaces of glaciers support a diverse array of life, including…

Ocean oddities called mixoplankton are organisms that can get energy both through photosynthesis and by eating other microbes. Now new research published in Nature Communications suggests that one such species, Prorocentrum cf. balticum, displays a bizarre and clever hunting technique—one that significantly contributes to the crucial cycling of carbon through land, atmosphere and oceans. Study lead author Michaela Larsson, a marine biologist at the University of Technology Sydney, and her colleagues were studying marine…