Many of us shirk at the thought of bacteria or fungus in our food, but without them, we wouldn’t have many of our favourite foods.
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Articles on Microbiology
Displaying 61 - 80 of 88 articles
Cat-borne parasites that may affect human aggression aren’t the only microscopic freeloaders that influence their hosts’ brains.
One common terrestrial bacterium has been found to grow in the microgravity of the International Space Station than on Earth, although it remains a mystery why.
While many of the fruits of the human genome project could be decades away, DNA sequencing of drug-resistant bacteria has been striding forwards
Our personal collection of microbes is vital for gut health - but new research shows that large-scale analysis of our ‘microbiomes’ can show if a population is fat or lean. The answer is in sewage.
We’ve long known that that the gut is responsible for digesting food and expelling the waste. More recently, we realised the gut has many more important functions and acts a type of mini-brain, affecting…
Human skin is a garden of microbes which is home to about 1,000 bacterial species. Most are benign but some invade the skin and cause illness – and of these, antibiotic resistant bacteria are particularly…
Trillions of microbes live in and on our body. We don’t yet fully understand how these microbial ecosystems develop or the full extent to which they influence our health. Some provide essential nutrients…
Bacterial diseases cause millions of deaths every year. Most of these bacteria were benign at some point in their evolutionary past, and we don’t always understand what turned them into disease-causing…
New links between the bacteria in your gut and disease are being made almost daily. We know, for instance, that the microbial communities residing in your intestines have a role in your mood and levels…
There is no denying that humans think sex is important, but it also matters for microbes. Sex allows genes from two parents to be mixed, leading to new combinations of genes in the offspring. In the past…
Beneath the lush forests of the Amazon is a whole different level of diversity that new research says may be one of the keys to understanding how to stem the global impacts of deforestation. The Amazon…
Striking new evidence indicates that the gut microbiome, the ecological community of microorganisms that share our body, has a huge effect on brain function – much larger than we thought. It has long been…
Methanosaeta, one of the earth’s most prominent methane producing micro-organisms, converts CO2 to methane by making electrical…
Bacteria and mould found in the dust created by vacuums could lead to health problems in people with allergies, infants and…
Probiotics are something of a new dietary craze. Foods contain healthy “probiotic” bacteria, and these microbes can promote good gastrointestinal (GI) health. But what about your brain? Apparently, bacteria…
Australia has some of the world’s most conservative restrictions on using antimicrobial drugs in livestock. Possibly as a consequence, we have some of the lowest rates in the world of antibiotic resistance…
Plants are able to distinguish between pathogens and beneficial micro-organisms by detecting the different types of molecules…
“Molecular beacons”, which light up when they bind to mRNA, allow scientists to watch stem cells as they turn into tissue…
A paper released today in the journal PNAS provides a new estimate of microbial abundance, in light of new information, from the sub-seafloor realm (the so-called “deep biosphere”). As such, we now have…
Top contributors
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Professor of Microbiology, Swinburne University of Technology
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Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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Associate Professor and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University
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Professor of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Washington
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Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Indiana University
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Regents' Professor & Chair, Medical Laboratory Science, Texas State University
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Senior Lecturer in Biology, Brunel University London
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Ph.D. Candidate in Microbiology, Cornell University
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(Formerly) Senior Research Specialist, Johns Hopkins University
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Professor of Protozoology, University of Bristol
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Senior Lecturer Veterinary Microbiology, University of Adelaide
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Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington
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Professor of Biology, University of Portsmouth
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Director at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute
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Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology
