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News tagged with microbial

New synthetic biology technique boosts microbial production of diesel fuel

(PhysOrg.com) -- Significant boosts in the microbial production of clean, green and renewable biodiesel fuel has been achieved with the development of a new technique in synthetic biology by researchers with ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (11) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Unique salt allows energy production to move inland

Production of energy from the difference between salt water and fresh water is most convenient near the oceans, but now, using an ammonium bicarbonate salt solution, Penn State researchers can combine bacterial ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 01, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (15) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Last universal common ancestor more complex than previously thought

Scientists call it LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, but they don't know much about this great-grandparent of all living things. Many believe LUCA was little more than a crude assemblage of molecular parts, a chemical ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Saltwater boosts microbial electrolysis cells to cleanly produce hydrogen

A grain of salt or two may be all that microbial electrolysis cells need to produce hydrogen from wastewater or organic byproducts, without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere or using grid electricity, ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Microbial life on Mars: Could saltwater make it possible?

(PhysOrg.com) -- How common are droplets of saltwater on Mars? Could microbial life survive and reproduce in them? A new million-dollar NASA project led by the University of Michigan aims to answer those questions.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 17, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Microbe vs. microbe: Patterns of bacteria-virus infection networks revealed

(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria are common sources of infection, but these microorganisms can themselves be infected by even smaller agents: viruses. A new analysis of the interactions between bacteria and viruses ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 27, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Using microbes to generate electricity

Using bacteria to generate energy is a signifiant step closer following a breakthrough discovery by scientists at the University of East Anglia.

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 23, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists grow personalized collections of intestinal microbes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Each of us carries a unique collection of trillions of friendly microbes in our intestines that helps break down food our bodies otherwise couldn't digest.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 21, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists identify a deadly tool in Salmonella's bag of tricks

The potentially deadly bacterium Salmonella possesses a molecular machine that marshals the proteins it needs to hijack cellular mechanisms and infect millions worldwide.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 03, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

How now, inside the cow: Nearly 30,000 novel enzymes for biofuel production improvements

Cows eat grass -- this has been observed for eons. From this fibrous diet consisting mainly of the tough to degrade plant cell wall materials cellulose and hemicellulose, substances of no nutritional value ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 27, 2011 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

A fizzy ocean on Enceladus

For years researchers have been debating whether Enceladus, a tiny moon floating just outside Saturn's rings, is home to a vast underground ocean. Is it wet--or not? Now, new evidence is tipping the scales. ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 27, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (29) | comments 52 | with audio podcast

Microbial hair -- it's electric: Specialized bacterial filaments shown to conduct electricity

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some bacteria grow electrical hair that lets them link up in big biological circuits, according to a University of Southern California biophysicist and his collaborators.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Oct 11, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Plants kick-start evolutionary drama of Earth's oxygenation

An international team of scientists, exploiting pioneering techniques at Arizona State University, has taken a significant step toward unlocking the secrets of oxygenation of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 08, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Study shows deepwater oil plume in Gulf degraded by microbes

In the aftermath of the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, a dispersed oil plume was formed at a depth between 3,600 and 4,000 feet and extending some 10 miles out from ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 24, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 15 | with audio podcast

Self-sustaining robot has an artificial gut (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- UK researchers have developed an autonomous robot with an artificial gut that enables it to fuel itself by eating and excreting. The robot is the first bot powered by biomass to be demonstrated ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Jul 20, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 19 | with audio podcast report