Bacteriology

Researchers get a close up look at bacteria’s suit of armor.

India isn’t the only source of these lethal bacteria. They are present all over the world. These bugs and their genes are spreading so rapidly around the world that some scientists regard the resistance genes as a new kind of environmental contaminant.

Scientists identify fossils of sulfur-eating bacteria that lived nearly three and a half billion years ago.

Frances Arnold is a biochemical engineer at Cal Tech working on a part of the energy crisis. Her team is altering the genetic codes of bacteria to evolve organisms than can digest grass and excrete biofuel. She tells Kurt about “directed evolution.”

New research shows that there are three distinct ecosystems in people’s guts that could have direct effects of people’s heath. We talk with Carl Zimmer, science reporter for our partner The New York Times, who reported on this story in yesterday’s paper.