Well the holiday season is upon us. Our calendars and days are now filled with shopping, travel, and social gatherings with friends, family, and loved ones. As the temperature outside…
Continue ReadingTardigrades, also known as waterbears or moss piglets, are microscopic invertebrates that “resemble a cross between a caterpillar and a naked mole rat,” according to science writer, Jason Bittel. First…
Continue ReadingYou’ve heard of MRSA. You may even have heard of XDR-TB and CRE. The rise of antibiotic-resistant infections in our communities has been both swift and alarming. But how did…
Continue ReadingThink of a farmer. Chances are, an image of an overall-wearing, pitchfork-wielding man just popped into your head. But humans are only one of a surprisingly large group of animals…
Continue ReadingOne of the most overwhelming aspects of modern-day biomedical research is the overarching heterogeneity that consumes all realms of biology. Ranging from cell to cell to human to human, we…
Continue ReadingWhile soaking in the sunshine may feel good, and you may have heard about solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation harm, you may not be aware of what’s in your sunscreen. Lee…
Continue ReadingInfluenza is a virus that straddles two worlds: that of the past and that of the future. Responsible for more deaths than HIV/AIDS in the past century, the flu is…
Continue ReadingMy labmate was having a problem one morning – a fuzzy, gluttonous problem. To help keep her indoor cat entertained during her time at work, she thought it was a…
Continue ReadingWhether our favorite characters are trying to train them, ride them, or simply escape from them, there is no denying the prevalence of dragons in popular culture. Dragon myths have existed…
Continue ReadingSummertime is well underway, and you may find yourself lathering on sunscreen more often – or like me, you may forget you even have a bottle sitting in your bathroom…
Continue ReadingGot the flu? Time to start looking for your frog prince. Researchers at Emory University have identified a substance that kills influenza, the virus that causes seasonal flu. The…
Continue ReadingEarlier this year, scientists from the Belmonte lab at the Salk Institute (La Jolla, CA) reported the first successful grafting of human stem cells into pig embryos. In other words, they were…
Continue ReadingYou may think it’s pretty neat that your dog Fido knows how to shake or bark on command, but until he learns to tell you where the good restaurants are,…
Continue ReadingGray hair, wrinkles, balding, crow’s feet – some wear these hallmarks of aging as a proud badge of wisdom and a long adventurous life, while others spend the latter parts…
Continue ReadingImage a researcher has been tasked with studying how hibernation affects a bear’s microbiota, or the collection of microorganisms residing on and in an organism. The researcher begins his day…
Continue ReadingCompletely legal and unregulated, caffeine is a staple of bustling culture, from office workers with travel mugs making a grab for their suitcases at 6 am to journalists refilling their…
Continue ReadingTo me, it seems that the media hypes all new disease outbreaks as the advent of the apocalypse. More often, the facts about these epidemics are simply overstated or misrepresented.…
Continue ReadingHumans do not find plastic bottles tasty. Try as we might, ingestion and digestion of an Auquafina bottle makes for a bad dinner. On the other hand, some bacteria see…
Continue Reading