Some insect wings such as cicada and dragonfly possess nanopillar structures that kill bacteria upon contact. However, to date, the precise mechanisms that cause bacterial death have been unknown.
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 6, 2020
1
32
One of the most devastating pathogens that lives inside human cells is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes tuberculosis. According to the World Health Organization, 1.5 million people died in 2019 from this ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 1, 2020
0
293
Horseshoe crabs are remarkable animals, beautiful in their weirdness. These "living fossils" evolved 450 million years ago and have lived through at least five mass extinctions fatal to the majority of multicellular lifeforms ...
Ecology
Apr 1, 2020
0
11
If humans ever hope to colonize Mars, the settlers will need to manufacture on-planet a huge range of organic compounds, from fuels to drugs, that are too expensive to ship from Earth.
Materials Science
Mar 31, 2020
2
1295
One of the last arrows in the quiver in the fight against dangerous bacteria is the reserve antibiotic daptomycin. It is used primarily when conventional drugs fail due to resistant bacteria. Although the antibiotic was developed ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 20, 2020
0
31
A puzzling modification of DNA that is common in bacteria is not present in humans or other mammals. This has been shown in a new study by scientists at Linköping University in Sweden, published in Science Advances. The ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 18, 2020
0
152
Microbiologists have long adopted the language of human settlement to describe how bacteria live and grow: They "invade" and "colonize." Relations dwelling in close proximity are "colonies."
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 13, 2020
0
457
Two factors that control the expression of a key gene required by luminescent bacteria to kill competing bacterial cells have been identified. The finding, by researchers at Penn State, sheds light on the molecular mechanisms ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 7, 2020
0
442
Bacteria have a sense of their own number. They release and sense signaling molecules that accumulate with increasing cell numbers, which allows them to change their behavior when a certain group size is reached. A team of ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 5, 2020
0
85
To stop the spread of disease, it could be used to coat phone screens and keyboards, as well as the inside of catheters and breathing tubes, which are a major source of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs).
Bio & Medicine
Mar 5, 2020
0
266
