Fortify your poop – Transfaunation
As you know, I’m always looking for practical uses of microbes. One that I stumbled upon a long while back was “transfaunation”, or, seeding o...
Author: charlie
Domestic-use in-vessel composters – really cool
I stumbled upon domestic-use in-vessel composters (on a lead from @harvestpower, of course). I had heard of in-vessel composting, but never realized that at lea...
Health benefits and health claims of probiotics: bridging science and marketing – BJN
“Health claims for probiotics are evaluated by the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies of the European Food Safety Authority. Despite a su...
A massive comfort : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
“Widely described as the point of no return, the event horizon of SgrA* would be the largest in our skies, but still just 30 microarcseconds across — the ...
Fuel From Waste? – ScienceNOW
“A team led by Jay Keasling, a bioengineer at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, California, worked to extend the strategy to make more commonly...
Pause for station identification
I seem to be overdue for a station identification. And, all the more urgent, as I was recently mentioned in an article in the NYT (why, oh, why do I always miss...
Ecology drives a global network of gene exchange connecting the human microbiome : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
“Horizontal gene transfer — the exchange of genetic material between different species or lineages — is an important factor in bacterial evolution. A stud...
The quest for the $500 home molecular biology laboratory >> Medical Laboratory Observer December 2011
“Molecular diagnostics and molecular biology in general are becoming more pervasive every day in a range of applications but are still seen by many as bei...
Bacterial physiology: Bacteria get old : Nature Reviews Microbiology
“A new study using data from earlier work that had generated conflicting results now reveals that bacteria do indeed age, but aging and rejuvenation occur...
Viral infection: The gut microbiota: friend or foe? : Nature Reviews Microbiology
“We normally think of the gut microbiota as the ‘friendly’ bacteria that carry out many beneficial functions, including protecting us from inf...