Rare New Microbe Found in Two Distant Clean Rooms

Scientists have discovered a new genus and species of bacteria, Tersicoccus phoenicis. It survives on very low nutrients and has been isolated in only 2 places on Earth: spacecraft clean rooms in Florida and South America. Tersi is Latin for clean, like the room. Coccus is Greek for berry, describing the bacterium's shape. Phoenicis is for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, the spacecraft being prepared for launch when the species was first collected. Other species of bacteria have been discovered in spacecraft clean rooms, but none have been found in 2 different clean rooms and nowhere else on Earth.

What makes a data visualization memorable?

Bad data visualization, one packed with too much text, excessive ornamentation, gaudy colors, and clip art, are redundant at best and useless at their worst. Sometimes called “chart junk,” there is debate among visualization experts if these extra elements serve a purpose.

UCLA engineers develop new metabolic pathway to more efficiently convert sugars into biofuels

Scientists at UCLA have created a new synthetic metabolic pathway for hydrolyzing glucose that could lead to a 50% increase in the production of biofuels! Nearly all organisms use glycolysis to convert 4 of the 6 carbon atoms in glucose into 2-carbon molecules of acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA is used to make biofuels (ethanol & butanol), fatty acids, amino acids, and pharmaceutical products. The problem is that the 2 remaining carbon atoms in glucose are lost as carbon dioxide gas and this is seen as a major inefficiency in the biorefining process.

Cold, Salty and Promiscuous - Gene-shuffling Microbes Dominate Antarctica’s Deep Lake

Antarctica’s Deep Lake has been isolated from the ocean for 3,500 years. This unique saltwater ecosystem remains liquid in extreme cold and provides researchers a unique niche for studying the evolution of extremophiles. Deep Lake is dominated by haloarchaea, microbes that require high salt concentrations to grow and are naturally adapted to -20°C. In a detailed analysis published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers have, for the first time, been able to present Deep Lake’s microbial community ecology.

Nanoparticle vaccine offers better protection

Many viruses and bacteria infect humans through mucosal surfaces, such as those in the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and reproductive tracts. To help fight these pathogens, scientists are working on vaccines that can establish a front line of defense at mucosal surfaces. Only a few mucosal vaccines are in use and development of new mucosal vaccines could help protect against influenza, other respiratory viruses, HIV, herpes simplex virus, human papilloma virus, and possibly even cancer vaccines.

K-State Microbiology Club on Twitter

Are you interested in microbiology? Are you a pre-health or pre-vet major? If so, the KSU Microbiology Club is for you! It doesn't if you're a K-State Wildcat or not, this Twitter feed should be followed! 

Meet like-minded majors and begin to build your professional network of contacts.

Visit KSU Microbiology Club on Twitter HERE.

Visit the KSU Microbiology Club website HERE.

Scientists uncover how superbug fights off antibiotic

Investigators working to stem the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have taken a major step in their efforts to develop new treatments. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have identified a novel mechanism that the hard-to-treat superbug called vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) uses to fend off the key front-line antibiotic daptomycin. VRE often affects critically ill patients.

Richness of human gut microbiome correlates with metabolic markers

We are facing a global health crisis caused by an obesity epidemic. Scientists report the human gut microbial composition in a population sample of non-obese and obese individuals. The 2 groups differ in the number of gut microbial genes and thus gut bacterial richness. They contain known and previously unknown bacterial species at different proportions; individuals with a low bacterial richness (23% of the population) are characterized by more adiposity, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, and a more pronounced inflammatory phenotype when compared with high bacterial richness individuals. The obese individuals among the lower bacterial richness group also gain more weight over time. Only a few bacterial species are sufficient to distinguish between individuals with high and low bacterial richness, and even between lean and obese participants. Classifications based on variation in the gut microbiome identify subsets of individuals in the general population who may be at increased risk of progressing to adiposity-associated health problems.

The Next Big Microscopic Thing - Nanobugs, Inc.

Here a nice website with very basic info about microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites). The mission of Nanobugs, Inc. is to both entertain and educate people of all ages about practical microbiology for the purpose of infection prevention and health promotion. Their entertaining formats communicate knowledge that is both memorable and usable.

How will crops fare under climate change? Depends on how you ask.

The damage scientists expect climate change to do to crop yields can differ greatly depending on which model was used to make projections. While the most dire scenarios always loom large in the minds of the public and policymakers, most are usually not aware of how the modeling influences the outcome.

The report in the journal Global Change Biology is one of the first to compare agricultural projections generated by empirical models to those by mechanistic models. Building on similar studies from ecology, the researchers found yet more evidence that empirical models may show greater losses as a result of climate change, while mechanistic models may be overly optimistic.

Learn Medical Microbiology

Check it out microbiology folks, a new flash card app for pathogenic microbes. SPOILER ALERT! They are not free. :-(

The Microbe Cards from Eye Cue Cards are designed to look like classic trading cards, with full color images, diagrams, and text for medically important microbes. The set has 103 cards organized into bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.

The Horrifying Story of the Last Death by Smallpox

So, the last unfortunate victim of smallpox in 1978 was infected by an unsafe research lab at the University of Birmingham in the UK. She had the misfortune of an office 1 floor above a smallpox lab that was not properly fitted with biosafety equipment.

NRS News: Forest Service Scientists Identify Key Fungal Species that Help Explain Mysteries of White Nose Syndrome

US Forest Service researchers have identified what may be a key to unraveling some of the mysteries of White Nose Syndrome. Studying the closest non-disease causing relatives of the WNS fungus have allowed scientists to move forward with genetic work to examining the molecular mechanisms this fungus uses to kill bats. These fungi, many of them still without formal Latin names, live in bat hibernation sites and even directly on bats, but they do not cause the devastating disease that kills millions of bats in the eastern US. Researchers hope to use these fungi to understand why one fungus can be deadly to bats while its close relatives are benign.

Microbial Home by Philips Design » Yanko Design

This amazing house design uses bacteria to treat, filter, process, and reuse household wastes like sewage, effluent, garbage, wastewater. The central hub in the Microbial Home consists of a methane digester, which converts bathroom waste solids and vegetable trimmings into methane gas that is used to power a series of functions in the home. 

DNA found outside genes plays largely unknown, potentially vital roles: Thousands of previously unknown RNA molecules identified

A new study highlights the potential importance of the vast majority of human DNA that lies outside of genes within the cell. The researchers found that 85% of these stretches of DNA make lincRNAs (large intergenic non-coding RNAs), molecules that increasingly is being found to play important roles within cells. They also determined that lincRNA is more likely than other non-gene DNA regions to be associated with inherited disease risks.

Purpose Games

Here a really cool online educational gaming website that has some nice biology games to help study biology.You can play other people's games or create your own custom games. Challenge someone play or set up group tournament play to add some spice to your study group. They host >70,000 public games created by >150,000 members.

Novel approach to find RNAs involved in long-term memory storage

Scientists have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of RNAs transported from the cell-body of neuron (nerve cell) to the synapse, the small gap separating neurons that enables cell to cell communication. Relatively little is known about the identity of these RNA molecules transported as part of the molecular process underpinning learning and memory. Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, Columbia University, and the University of Florida have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of these RNAs.

Scitable | Learn Science at Nature

Scitable is a free science library and online learning tool from Nature Publishing Group, the world's leading publisher of science.

Scitable currently focuses on genetics and cell biology (evolution, gene expression, and cellular processes). Scitable also offers advice about effective science communication and career paths.

Biology | Khan Academy

I've posted previously links to individual Khan Academy's YouTube videos before, but now Khan Academy has a slick new website with all of their educational videos with online discussion threads for each video. You can view videos and ask questions or view common questions and answers already asked.

Neat.

Biology | OpenStax College

So, you want to learn biology online, but still like the old paper-in-hand copy to read? No problem! Open Stax College has a collection of college science textbooks you can view online for free or download for a small donation that you decide on. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers. Open Stax College was created by Rice University and has several open source textbooks with more on the way.

Brain size didn't drive primate evolution, research suggests

When great apes diverged from old-world monkeys about 20 million years ago, there was a rise in white matter in the prefrontal cortex, which contributes to social cognition, moral judgments, introspection, and goal-directed planning. Regions tied to motor planning also increased and could have helped them orchestrate the complex movements needed to manipulate tools.

25 Places to Find Free Computer Science Classes Online

If you would like to learn some computer science check out Online colleges. They have a nice list of places to find free online classes.

Learn Biology on YouTube

Mary Poffenroth has a cool biology website with a full YouTube series to complement Khan Academy's lectures in biology.

Drug-resistant MRSA bacteria: Here to stay in both hospital and community

The drug-resistant bac­te­ria known as MRSA, once con­fined to hos­pi­tals but now wide­spread in com­mu­ni­ties, will likely con­tinue to exist in both set­tings as sep­a­rate strains, accord­ing to a new study.

Paralyzing algae is killing manatees at record pace in Florida

Florida wildlife officials report that 149 of the gentle giants have been killed by red tide this year in just two and a half months, making it almost certain that the state will pass the record of 151, set in 1996.

Check out every single kind of microbe in your body online — all 5 million of them

The initial phase of the Human Microbiome Project has come to an end — and with it, the mapping of the full community of microbes that inhabit all the various nooks and crannies of the healthy human body. The results of the exhaustive study will be published as a collection in PLoS, making their findings available to everyone.

Baby Genomes!!

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time sequenced the genome of an unborn baby using only a blood sample from the mother.

Reports of rare superbug jump in US, CDC says

A sharp jump in the number of rare but potentially deadly types of a superbug resistant to nearly all last-resort antibiotics has prompted government health officials to renew warnings for U.S. hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings.

The move comes just as researchers are reporting that people who carry dangerous CRE -- Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae -- can take more than a year before they test negative for the bacteria, making it more difficult to control and raising the risk of wider spread.