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Over at Neatorama, we have a lot of scientific-minded readers, many of whom aren’t particularly impressed with some of the art projects we post here. Hopefully this microbial art will be an exception though as it takes some scientific materials, bacteria and Petri dishes, to make some really cool designs. Check out works from a variety of bacteria artists over at Flavorwire.
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Who has more bacteria in their navel -Carl Zimmer of The Loom or Peter Aldhous of NewScientist? The swabs have been taken, and the cultures were grown. You can see the results in petri dishes. It’s part of the Belly Button Biodiversity Project led by Jiri Hulcr of North Carolina State University.
The project was conceived as a device to interest the public in microbiology, and to counter the common view that bacteria are nothing but causes of disease. “This fear is based on a lack of awareness that we live in a microbial world,” says Hulcr, who notes that even some “self-described germophobes” have confronted their anxieties and given swabs.
Hulcr also aims to extend a scientific frontier: researchers are realising that the human “microbiome” – the diversity of microorganisms that inhabit our bodies – is a key influence on our health and physiology. The skin remains poorly explored territory, and the belly button is an ideal sampling point because it doesn’t get as scrubbed and sprayed with chemicals as much other, more accessible parts.
See more navel microbes growing at NewScientist. Link -via Carl Zimmer
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Until very recently, biologists believed that once a virus enters a cell, a person’s immune system cannot combat that virus because antibodies cannot enter cells. But researchers at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, have uncovered evidence that antibodies can, in fact, enter cells. This opens up the possibility of attaching antiviral components to antibodies that can kill viruses inside cells:
Once inside the cell, the presence of the antibody is recognised by a naturally occurring protein in the cell called TRIM21 which in turn activates a powerful virus-crushing machinery that can eliminate the virus within two hours – long before it has the chance to hijack the cell to start making its own viral proteins. “This is the last opportunity a cell gets because after that it gets infected and there is nothing else the body can do but kill the cell,” Dr James said.
“The antibody is attached to the virus and when the virus gets sucked inside the cell, the antibody stays attached, there is nothing in that process to make the antibody to fall off.
“The great thing about it is that there shouldn’t be anything attached to antibodies in the cell, so that anything that is attached to the antibody is recognised as foreign and destroyed.”
Leo James, the lead researcher, speculated that this discovery could lead to effective treatments for cold viruses, among others.
Link via DVICE | Image: Clipart.com
Researchers at the École Polytechnique de Montréal used bacteria that follow magnetic pull to build a tiny pyramid:
By using a computer-controlled magnetic field, the researchers turned the bacteria into fully-compliant biological nanorobots.
The trick was using a type of microbe known as magnetotactic bacteria. These critters have little internal compasses, and will follow the pull of a magnetic field. By manipulating a magnetic field, the researchers tricked the bacteria into forming a giant, computer-controlled swarm. In one experiment, the researchers had the bacterial swarm assemble a small pyramid.
The researchers hope to use this development to perform microscopic tasks normally thought to be the future of nanotechnology, such as organ repair.
via Popular Science
This video shows a neutrophil (a type of white blood cell) chasing a staphylococcus aureus bacterium. The video was recorded by biochemistry professor David Rogers of Vanderbilt University in the 1950s. Notes on the movement by med school professor Thomas P. Stossel:
Contraction waves are visible along the surface of the moving cell as it moves forward in a gliding fashion. As the neutrophil relentlessly pursues the microbe it ignores the red cells and platelets. However, its leading edge is sufficiently stiff (elastic) to deform and displace the red cells it bumps into. The internal contents of the neutrophil also move, and granule motion is particularly dynamic near the leading edge. These granules only approach the cell surface membrane when the cell changes direction and redistributes its peripheral “gel.” After the neutrophil has engulfed the bacterium, note that the cell’s movements become somewhat more jerky, and that it begins to extend more spherical surface projections.
Link via Geekologie
A team of scientists led by Keizo Tomonaga of Osaka University determined that a virus dating from 40 million years ago is embedded in human DNA. This infection, known as the bornavirus, might be the cause of schizophrenia and passes from generation to generation inside human cellular nuclei, filling out 8% of human genetic code:
The assimilation of viral sequences into the host genome is a process referred to as endogenization. This occurs when viral DNA integrates into a chromosome of reproductive cells and is subsequently passed from parent to offspring. Until now, retroviruses were the only viruses known to generate such endogenous copies in vertebrates. But Feschotte said that scientists have found that non-retroviral viruses called bornaviruses have been endogenized repeatedly in mammals throughout evolution.
Bornavirus (BDV) owes its name to the town of Borna, Germany, where a virus epidemic in 1885 wiped out a regiment of cavalry horses. BDV infects a range of birds and mammals, including humans. It is unique because it infects only neurons, establishing a persistent infection in its host’s brain, and its entire life cycle takes place in the nucleus of the infected cells.
Link via io9 | Image: US Department of Energy
This is a fun little learning tool, provided by The University of Utah. Use the slider bar to zoom smaller and smaller in scale, from 12 millimeters (coffee bean) to 140 picameters (carbon atom), and track progress with the graph in the upper left. And if something looks fishy about that sperm cell…
How can an X chromosome be nearly as big as the head of the sperm cell?
No, this isn’t a mistake. First, there’s less DNA in a sperm cell than there is in a non-reproductive cell such as a skin cell. Second, the DNA in a sperm cell is super-condensed and compacted into a highly dense form. Third, the head of a sperm cell is almost all nucleus. Most of the cytoplasm has been squeezed out in order to make the sperm an efficient torpedo-like swimming machine.
Link via Twisted Sifter
SARS Corona Virus by Luke Jerram
Artist Luke Jarram has created glass sculptures of some of the deadliest diseases known to man including HIV, E. Coli and Small Pox. The incredibly intrincate sculptures challenge both the state of the art in glass sculpting and the ability of scientists to visualize these diseases. For instance scientists are unable to describe to Jarram how RNA is situated in the Capsid.
Jarram’s website includes a video showing how he uses glass blowing techniques to create the sculptures. The video shows him working on the HIV sculpture.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by OddNumber.
