The microbes that live in your body outnumber your cells 10 to one. Recent studies suggest these tiny organisms help us digest food and maintain our immune system. Now, researchers have discovered yet another way microbes keep us healthy: They are needed for closing the blood-brain barrier, a molecular fence that shuts out pathogens and molecules that could harm the brain.

This is a single drop of seawater, magnified 25 times. The amazing image shows bacteria, worms, fish eggs, crab larva, diatoms, and much more. Think about THAT next time you swallow a mouthful of seawater.

White bloods cells, known scientifically as leukocytes, are immune system cells that fight infect. The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body. Sometimes our bodies encounter pathogens like bacteria, or in this case a parasitic worm. Roundworms, or nematodes, are parasites that can infect people by living and feeding in the intestines. There are different kinds of worms that can cause infection, and they can range in length from 1 millimeter to 1 meter. Luckily, this worm was no challenge for these hungry white blood cells. ...

Have you heard about two new gigantic viruses that have been discovered? They measure around 1 micrometer long & half that across – larger than some eukaryotic cells! Massive genomes up to 2.5 Mb (millions of base pairs) are present to match their giant size. Their discovery raises many questions on viral diversity that remains unexplored.

A bacterium previously unknown to science was found in two spacecraft clean rooms, one in Florida and the other in Guiana. Space agencies use these rooms to prepare spacecraft for launch and are considered two of the most sterile places on Earth.

Mythical King Midas was ultimately doomed because everything he touched turned to gold. Now, the reverse has been found in bacteria that owe their survival to a natural Midas touch.


Delftia acidovorans lives in sticky biofilms that form on top of gold deposits, but exposure to dissolved gold ions can kill it. That's because although metallic gold is unreactive, the ions are toxic.

To protect itself, the bacterium has evolved a chemical that detoxifies gold ions by turning them into harmless gold nanoparticles. These accumulate safely outside the bacterial cells. ...

Researchers have reanimated an ancient, giant virus from 30,000-year-old Siberian permafrost that is almost not of this world--well, the world as we know it now, anyway. “Sixty percent of its gene content doesn’t resemble anything on earth,” reported one of the study's authors.

More on the following links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/science/out-of-siberian-ice-a-virus-revived.html?ref=science&_r=0

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39325/title/Ancient-Giant-Virus-Discovered/ ...

A new study suggests that humans who live in industrialized societies don’t have the guts to stomach a real hunter-gatherer diet. Compared with hunter-gatherers, industrialized peoples’ intestines have fewer kinds of microbes - and are missing at least one major group of ancient bacteria.

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium that attacks other bacteria. It can charge its prey at speeds of up to 100 micrometers per second, comparable to a human running 600 kilometers per hour. It then bores into its hapless victim by spinning at 100 revolutions per second. Most bacteria aren't quite that fast, but they can move by whipping flagella or by spiraling through their environment.

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According to a study published in the medical journal eLife, researchers found that specific combinations of gut bacteria produce substances that affect myelin content and cause social avoidance behaviors in mice.

Researchers transferred fecal bacteria from the gut of depressed mice to genetically distinct mice exhibiting non-depressed behavior. The study showed that the transfer of microbiota was sufficient to induce social withdrawal behaviors and change the expression of myelin genes and myelin content in the brains of the recipient mice.

In an effort to define the mechanism of gut-brain communication, researchers identified bacterial communities associated with increased levels of cresol, a substance that has the ability to pass the bloo ...

Imagine a disease whose presence is marked by a feeling of something crawling along your skin, stinging every part of your body as if there is insect or parasite infestation that doesn't go away. Not only that, but your skin is plagued with the presence of multicolored filaments that lie under, are embedded in, or project from skin.

Morgellons disease (pronounced with either a hard or soft "g") is a highly misunderstood skin condition that was first reported in the USA in 2002, although may have a longer history depending on where you look. The characteristic filaments described earlier are microscopic, visually resembling textile fibers, and are white, black, or a more vibrant color, such as red or blue (left image). In addition to fiber p ...