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Maternal Microbial Transmission 27 Aug 2013 | 04:33 pm
While the human microbiota comprises only 1–3% of an individual’s total body mass, this small percentage represents over 100 trillion microbial cells, outnumbering human cells 10 to 1 and adding over ...
Virus taxonomy needs a spring clean 22 Aug 2013 | 05:00 pm
It’s hard to talk to people about the importance of taxonomy. Eyes glaze over rapidly, brains focus on wearing white coats with stethoscopes and curing cancer. Taxonomy just ain’t sexy. But it is vita...
Ed Yong: The Philosophy of Bacteria 19 Aug 2013 | 02:52 pm
Ed Yong explores the physical and philosophical implications of being host to billions of microbes. He reports the latest science showing how the bacteria we come into contact with can profoundly affe...
Badger baiting – the truth about badgers and bovine tuberculosis 15 Aug 2013 | 07:51 pm
I’ve spent the last five years trying to persuade students to do a research project with me looking at issues around the scientific evidence concerning bovine tuberculosis and badgers – without succes...
Scabies 13 Aug 2013 | 08:00 pm
Scabies is a skin disease caused by infestation with the mite Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis. Closely related species of mite cause mange in animals. Although not fatal, scabies causes considerable mo...
Poxvirus holds its breath 8 Aug 2013 | 05:00 pm
When a virus infects a cell it tries to tweak the intracellular environment to favour virus replication. Exactly how viruses do this is not always clear. A recent paper in PNAS describes how Vaccinia ...
How, exactly, do prion proteins cause disease? 5 Aug 2013 | 04:40 pm
When prions were first discovered in the 1980s it was immensely controversial whether an isolated protein molecule could act as an infectious agent without any associated nucleic acid, that is, withou...
Do big viruses make you really sick? 2 Aug 2013 | 12:57 pm
For most of my research career, I worked on viruses with small genomes, such as poliovirus and HIV. For me, the attraction of these viruses is that it is easier to understand all the interactions that...
Could bacteria give you cancer? 29 Jul 2013 | 04:06 pm
We know of at least eight viruses which cause cancer in humans, but apart from Helicobacter pylori there are no firmly established cases of bacteria causing tumours. Having said that, there are a numb...
Babesia: An Emerging Infectious Threat 22 Jul 2013 | 07:45 pm
Never heard of Babesia? Don’t worry, you will soon. Babesiosis is an emerging zoonosis caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Babesia. In many ways, the organism is similar to the parasites which...
