Tag: Bacteria
11 Results
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Living off another
I ’ve just finished reading Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes, a collection of articles that looks at animals in a new way. According to Barnes, 80 per cent of the living animals on Earth are nematode worms. There are 28,000 species of which 16,000 are parasites. The longest known nematode is 13 metres long …
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July 23, 2017 -
Micromotors powered by bacteria and light developed
Scientists have created swimming micromotors that are powered by bacteria and light, and may be used for targetted drug delivery in the future. Researchers deposited a drop of fluid containing thousands of free-swimming, genetically engineered E coli onto an array of micromotors. This caused the micromotors to begin rotating within minutes. The bacteria swum the …
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July 14, 2017 -
Microbots to remove harmful bacteria from water developed
Scientists have developed magnetic microbots with silver nanoparticles that can zoom around contaminated water and clean up disease-causing bacteria. Drinking water contaminated with pathogenic bacteria can cause serious illnesses that, in areas with spotty medical services, are potentially life-threatening without proper treatment. Water can be disinfected with chlorine or other disinfectants, but there are some …
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June 30, 2017 -
How bacteria in your body may promote diabetes
While a large waistline and high blood sugar levels are known risk factors for diabetes, researchers have now found that having bacteria that penetrate the mucus lining of the colon may promote metabolic disease, particularly Type-2 diabetes. Metabolic syndrome, which has become far more common due to a rise in obesity rates among adults, is …
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May 31, 2017 -
‘Magical’ antibiotic modified to beat bacterial resistance
Researchers have found a way to make a 'magical' antibiotic so powerful that it could eliminate the threat of antibiotic-resistant infections for years to come. Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in the US structurally modified the lifesaving antibiotic called vancomycin to make an already-powerful version of the antibiotic even more potent. In tests, …
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May 30, 2017 -
Bacteria used to turn methane into electricity
Scientists have created a bacteria-powered fuel cell that can convert the greenhouse gas methane into electricity. “People have tried for decades to directly convert methane. But they have not been able to do it with microbial fuel cells. We have engineered a strain of bacteria that can,” said Thomas K Wood, professor at Pennsylvania State …
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May 17, 2017 -
New, quick test to identify superbug infection
A simple, new test may accurately diagnose some of the most dangerous drug-resistant bacterial infections such as bronchitis and gastroenteritis in under 15 minutes, scientists say. Bacteria have been gradually evolving to become resistant to the antibiotics used to treat them. Over the last few years, scientists have found evidence that some bacteria have become …
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April 24, 2017 -
‘Sharing a mobile phone can spread bacteria’
Many people handling the same mobile phone can spread infection and give rise to bacterial pathogens, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday. In a written reply, Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Faggan Singh Kulaste said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued guidelines on “hospital infection control” to reduce infections in …
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February 3, 2017 -
Antibiotics may cause bacteria to mutate
Antibiotics may cause bacteria to mutate into "uber-bugs" which reproduce much faster, say scientists who found that a bug which causes severe stomach pain, diarrhoea and kidney failure in humans had increased resistance after each round of drug treatment. Researchers at University of Exeter in the UK exposed E coli bacteria to eight rounds of …
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January 31, 2017 -
‘Necrobiome’ can tell the time of death
Bacteria found on the body could help forensic scientists more accurately determine the time of death or other aspects of a crime scene, a new study has found. Currently, when a deceased human is discovered, the forensic techniques for estimating time elapsed since death is not very precise. However, in a new study researchers at …
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January 1, 2017 -
Hungry bacteria can extract energy from sewage
Sewage contains a source of energy that can be harvested by using hungry bacteria, researchers from Ghent University in Belgium have discovered. “The levels of organic matter in sewage are too low to be directly recovered. We investigated how we can use bacteria to capture this material,” said one of the researchers Francis Meerburg. “We …
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November 26, 2016