News

With the ability to leech heavy metals from the environment and digest a potent greenhouse gas, methanotrophic bacteria pull double duty when it comes to cleaning up the environment. Scientists have identified two never-before-studied proteins, MbnB and MbnC, as partially responsible for the bacteria’s capabilities.

Direct-to-consumer gene test are commonly misinterpreted by medical providers or third-party companies with limited genetics training, causing distress and confusion to users.

While it’s easy to blame the bacteria during intestinal infections, it’s actually the toxins the bacteria produce that trigger inflammation, diarrhea, fever and cramps. Treatments typically include indiscriminate antibiotics that slaughter health-promoting gut bacteria along with disease-causing microbes. Researchers now report the development of a microgel scavenger that targets toxins instead of bacteria.

Food-security experts from all over the world will converge on Belfast from 28-31 May 2018 for a major Summit on how to feed a growing global population - amid massive challenges such as climate change, Brexit, labyrinthine food-supply chains and food fraud on a global scale.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) announced today that Novartis will have access to commercially develop their therapeutic, biomaterial-based, cancer vaccine technology that promotes anti-cancer immunity.

Stainless steel is the gold standard for kitchen appliances and cookware, described as modern and sleek. But bacteria can grow on stainless steel surfaces, contaminating food. Current coatings available on the market are pricey and potentially harmful, so scientists have now developed an affordable specialized polymer coating for such surfaces that they can recharge with bleach treatments.

Factors in early life such as maternal care influence the number and modifications of certain 'jumping genes' - a finding that ties together nature and nurture.

A compound in beets that gives the vegetable its distinctive red color could eventually help slow the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the brain, a process that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

More than 79 thousand tonnes of ocean plastic are floating inside The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a figure up to 16 times higher than previously estimated, according to a recent study.

A mysterious six-inch skeleton found in the Chilean desert was thought to be the answer to extraterrestrial life. Instead, it may provide solutions to some very human questions about mutation.