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Categories: Biology: Microbiology, Offbeat: Space

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Scientists have significantly advanced the race to control plant responses to temperature on a rapidly warming planet. Key to this breakthrough is miRNA, a molecule nearly 200,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

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Continued warming of the climate would see a rise in the number and spread of potentially fatal infections caused by bacteria found along parts of the coast of the United States. Vibrio vulnificus bacteria grow in warm shallow coastal waters and can infect a cut or insect bite during contact with seawater. The researchers predict that by 2041--2060 infections may spread to encompass major population centers around New York. Combined with a growing and increasingly elderly population, who are more susceptible to infection, annual case numbers could double.

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Mpox -- previously known as 'monkeypox' -- is currently spreading worldwide. Researchers have now identified a compound that could help fight the disease.

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Memory B cells play a critical role to provide long-term immunity after a vaccination or infection. Researchers have now described a distinct and novel subset of memory B cells that predict long-lived antibody responses to influenza vaccination in humans. These effector memory B cells appear to be poised for a rapid serum antibody response upon secondary challenge one year later.

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For mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, the abundance of the insects in places where people gather has long served as the main barometer for infection risk. A new study, however, suggests that the number of 'hidden' infections tied to a place, or cases of infected people who show no symptoms, is the key indicator for dengue risk.

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An unusually severe form of toxoplasmosis killed four sea otters and could pose a threat to other marine wildlife and humans, finds a new study.

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Researchers have 'hacked' the earliest stages of photosynthesis, the natural machine that powers the vast majority of life on Earth, and discovered new ways to extract energy from the process, a finding that could lead to new ways of generating clean fuel and renewable energy.

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When the first interstellar comet ever seen in our solar system was discovered in 2017, one characteristic -- an unexplained acceleration away from the sun -- sparked wild speculation, including that it was an alien spacecraft. An astrochemist found a simpler explanation and tested it with an astronomer: in interstellar space, cosmic rays converted water to hydrogen in the comet's outer layers. Nearing the sun, outgassed hydrogen gave the tiny comet a kick.

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Researchers behind the UK's first pilot public health surveillance system based on analysis of wastewater say that routine monitoring at sewage treatment works could provide a powerful early warning system for the next flu or norovirus epidemic, alerting hospitals to prepare and providing public health agencies with vital health information.

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A mosquito known only by its scientific name, Culex lactator, is the latest to establish in the Sunshine State, according to a new study.

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Beetles are champions at surviving in extremely dry environments. In part, this property is due to their ability to suck water from the air with their rear ends. A new study explains just how. Beyond helping to explain how beetles thrive in environments where few other animals can survive, the knowledge could eventually be used for more targeted and delicate control of global pests such as the grain weevil and red flour beetle.

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Following enormous collisions, such as asteroid impacts, some amount of material from an impacted world may be ejected into space. This material can travel vast distances and for extremely long periods of time. In theory this material could contain direct or indirect signs of life from the host world, such as fossils of microorganisms. And this material could be detectable by humans in the near future, or even now.

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With the first paper compiling all known information about planets like Venus beyond our solar system, scientists are the closest they've ever been to finding an analog of Earth's 'twin.'

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Samples from the asteroid Ryugu collected by the Hayabusa2 mission contain nitrogenous organic compounds, including the nucleobase uracil, which is a part of RNA.

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Atomic nuclei accelerated close to the speed of light become dense walls of gluons known as color glass condensate (CGC). Recent analysis shows that CGC shares features with black holes, enormous conglomerates of gravitons that exert gravitational force across the universe. Both gluons in CGC and gravitons in black holes are organized in the most efficient manner possible for each system's energy and size.

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Shigellosis, a highly contagious diarrheal disease, is caused by Shigella bacteria circulating in industrializing countries but also in industrialized countries. Scientists who have been monitoring Shigella in France for several years have detected the emergence of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of Shigella sonnei.

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Parasitic infections in salmonid fish can increase or decrease their vulnerability to angling, depending on their body condition.

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A new substance has proven useful for treating staphylococcus infections in people with skin lymphoma. This is good news for the patients, but also for the global threat of antibiotics resistance.

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The ability of a cell to divide, to proliferate, is essential for life and gives rise to the formation of complex organisms from a single cell. It also allows the replacement of used cells from a limited number of 'stem' cells, which then proliferate and specialize. In cancer, however, cell proliferation is no longer controlled and becomes chaotic. Researchers have discovered that, in a healthy individual, certain blood immune cells, the monocytes, also have this ability to proliferate, with the aim to replace tissue macrophages, which are essential for the proper functioning of our body.

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Leading edge technology has uncovered secrets about a world-renowned fossil hoard that could offer vital clues about early life on Earth. Researchers who analyzed the 400 million-year-old cache, found in rural north-east Scotland, say their findings reveal better preservation of the fossils at a molecular level than was previously anticipated.