Our bodies have a set of defenses that are finely tuned for killing invading microbes. With rising cases of drug-resistant bacteria, maybe boosting our natural defenses is the best medicine.
Articles on Microbes
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The microbes living in the soils around plant roots can help plants deal with a variety of stresses.
Did you forget to put the leftovers away? If it’s only an hour or two, that’s OK, but as the temperature drops under 60 degrees, the risk of bacterial growth – and food poisoning – increases.
Researchers are exploring the possibility of creating living drugs – designer microbes that can live in our guts and provide critical components that our body needs but can’t make itself.
Leftover lactose from cheese production shows early promise as a treatment that can help soils retain water and nutrients, making them more resistant to drought.
Around 75% of our faeces is made up of water. The other 25% is the good stuff, including bacteria, viruses and undigested food.
Regular hand washing is important not only to keep from getting the flu but also to prevent passing it to others, such as young children and seniors, who may be even more vulnerable. Here’s how.
Wetlands are some of the world’s most undervalued weapons against climate change. They store huge quantities of carbon – but without better protection, many could soon be drained or paved over.
If humans are to live on Mars they will need a stable supply of food. Earth plants are not suited to the Mars climate but we can engineer plants that are.
Nearly 50 years since the first man walked on the moon, our morals are still stranded on Earth.
Following NASA’s latest discovery of organic matter on the red planet, new findings in a salt lake in California could point to where to look for alien life.
Triclosan is found in thousands of personal care products from toothpaste to soap. New research links it to inflammation and cancer in the gut in mice, by disrupting their microbiome.
In the largest citizen science experiment to date, 11,336 people sent poop samples to this San Diego lab so that microbiologists could figure out how the microbes in our guts make us healthy or sick.
We could find evidence of life on Europa within a couple of decades.
Antibiotic-munching microbes may prove useful for mopping up contaminated water supplies and land.
Where do plague bacteria go between outbreaks? Research demonstrates that they can survive and replicate inside amoebae that are widely present in soil and water worldwide.
Ants produce their own antimicrobial chemicals to fight bacteria.
The recent E. coli outbreak in North America was linked to romaine lettuce. Many such outbreaks are often linked to fresh produce. Here’s what you need to know to keep your family safe.
If we find microbes on Mars, it will be difficult to exclude the possibility that we have accidentally brought them there from Earth.
With holiday travel in full swing and people packed together in small spaces, it’s important to try to stop the spread of germs. But can we really get our hands clean with a few seconds of cold water?
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology, University of Leicester
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Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
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Associate Professor, Department of Entomology; African-American Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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Doctoral Candidate in Microbiology, University of Oregon
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Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University
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Senior Lecturer in Biology, Brunel University of London
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Ecologist and Researcher, Flinders University
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Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, University of Washington
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Professor emeritus, Colorado State University
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Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Maine
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Professor of Microbiology, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University
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Professor of microbiology, Manchester Metropolitan University
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Washington State University
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Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences, RMIT University