You probably know about the collection of microorganisms that live in, on and around us. But did you know that not everyone in society has equal access to them? That needs to change.
A lake in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.
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A new report estimates that by 2050, 40 per cent of all infections will be resistant to antimicrobial treatment. This will directly cause 13,700 previously preventable deaths.
Keep those stinkers away!
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A real-life experiment to mimic future conditions for soils affected by climate change suggests that some of the biggest impacts could be to ecosystems buried out of sight beneath our feet.
Fossils contain a thriving world of bacteria, proteins and perhaps even organic matter from dinosaurs.
What are the differences between planned assisted childbirth with midwife at home versus delivery with obstetrician at a hospital?
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Evidence suggests that microbes play a vital role in health. But what microbes we get depends whether we were born in a hospital versus at home. That could impact our health decades later.
The eye has a collection of microbes living on the surface that keep it healthy.
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Just like the gut, the skin and the mouth, the eye also has a collection of microbes that keep it healthy. Understanding the eye microbiome may lead to new probiotic therapies.
What nutrients will help the microbes in your gut thrive?
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You want to encourage the growth of good bacteria in your gut to improve health. But which foods should you eat to do that? It turns out that nutritional labels aren’t much help figuring that out.
Drug discovery can get an assist from what nature’s already devised.
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As antibiotic resistance increases globally, the heat is on to find new alternatives to treat infections. Chemists can get a head start by looking at compounds produced in nature by fishes’ microbes.
A live Padaungiella lageniformis wiggles its pseudopods.
Daniel J. G. Lahr
Using the family relationships between single-celled protists alive today, researchers hypothesized what their evolutionary ancestors looked like – and then looked in the fossil record for matches.
Biscuit Brook, a popular fly fishing spot in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
Ellen Wohl
The Trump administration wants to end federal protection under the Clean Water Act for many small streams and wetlands. But as a geoscientist explains, these are critical parts of large river systems.
Millions of Americans suffer from food allergies.
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There has been a dramatic rise in life-threatening food allergies in the last few decades. Antibiotics, poor diet and C-sections have all been implicated. Now new evidence points to gut microbes.
Antibiotic-resistant germs can thrive in the presence of these drugs.
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Our bodies have a set of defenses that are finely tuned for killing invading microbes. With rising cases of drug-resistant bacteria, maybe boosting our natural defenses is the best medicine.
A recent study estimates that high temperatures and drought will lead to drastic losses for all major food crops, including maize and wheat.
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Did you forget to put the leftovers away? If it’s only an hour or two, that’s OK, but as the temperature drops under 60 degrees, the risk of bacterial growth – and food poisoning – increases.
A capsule with a genetically engineered bacterium for therapeutic purposes.
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Researchers are exploring the possibility of creating living drugs – designer microbes that can live in our guts and provide critical components that our body needs but can’t make itself.
Wastes from facilities like this cheese factory could find uses in agriculture.
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Leftover lactose from cheese production shows early promise as a treatment that can help soils retain water and nutrients, making them more resistant to drought.
Human poo is a concoction made up mostly of water with a sprinkling of the solid stuff.
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