A chronic problem in wine making is when yeast that should be busily converting grape sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide prematurely shuts down, leaving the remaining sugar to instead be consumed…

Cellular reproduction seems simple but the ability to faithfully copy genetic material and distribute it equally to daughter cells is fundamental to all forms of life - and complex. Even seemingly…

Credit: CDC Listeria is a dreaded bacterium that can be found in foods. The bacterium is notoriously difficult to fight because it has an almost uncanny ability to adapt to changes in its…

Allergic reactions to food have dramatically increased over the past 10 to 20 years. Dan Peled/AAP, CC BY By Alexandra Miller, The Conversation and Reema Rattan, The Conversation Changing the…

Bacteria growing in near darkness can still harvest energy and produce oxygen from sunlight. Researchers discovered that the cyanobacterial strain Leptolyngbya completely changes its photosynthetic…

Even the most careful chosen meal can contain surprises and to defend against infectious microbial fifth columnists in the intestines, a dedicated contingent of immune cells keeps watch within the…

Emiliania huxleyi, up close and personal. Alison R. Taylor, CC BY By Assaf Vardi, Weizmann Institute of Science and Ilan Koren, Weizmann Institute of Science Algae isn’t just found in your garden…

Fungal infections that have been sickening HIV/AIDS patients in Southern California for decades literally grow on trees. For that discovery, we can thank a 13-year-old girl who spent the summer…

The bacterium Clostridium difficile causes antibiotic-related diarrhea and is a growing problem in the hospital environment and elsewhere in the community. Understanding how the microbe colonizes the…

A parasitic fungus - Ophiocordyceps camponoti-rufipedis, known as the "zombie ant fungus" - must kill its ant hosts outside their nest to reproduce and transmit their infection,so they manipulate its…