Jan 31st – Everyone knows that sugar is bad for your teeth. But why is that so? Because Streptococcus mutans bacteria love to eat it! Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) is the leading cause of tooth decay and a primary component of dental plaque. By eating sugars such as fructose (found in fruits), lactose (found in …
Jan 30th – Candida albicans is a diploid fungus that lives peaceably in over 80% of the population, a stolid member of the commensal community of microorganisms normally found on the skin and in the mucous membranes and gastrointestinal tract. However, from time to time, Candida albicans (C. albicans) develops territorial ambitions and transforms from …
Jan 29th – Anobium punctatum (A. punctatum) is the classic bookworm primarily responsible for tunneling holes through the pages of old codices and manuscripts. (A. punctatum also works a day job as the common furniture beetle, which is where it is more often encountered today.) It is the larvae of A. punctatum that is actually …
Jan 28th – Caenorhabditis elegans (AKA Roundworm) is no ordinary worm: it’s a small, free-living, non-parasitic, multicellular, unsegmented, eukaryotic, bilaterally-symmetrical, vermiform nematode that is one of the most studied organisms on the planet! Because its cell structure is non-varying from worm to worm, the development of each of its 959 somatic cells has been observed …
Jan 27th – Brain-eating amoeba, or Naegleria fowleri to its friends, is a fearsome predator that lurks in warm fresh-water lakes, rivers, and springs. It is not technically an amoeba, but in fact can morph like a sci-fi villain into three different body shapes: as an amoeboid trophozoite, it can stalk bacterial prey; if the …
Jan 26th – Botulism, Latin for ‘sausage disease,’ was first recognized in 1735 as a form of food-poisoning in German sausages. It is caused by Clostridium botulinum, which produce a neurotoxin that is one of the most poisonous natural substances known (and has even been developed as a biological weapon). Fortunately, C. botulinum, a bacteria, …
Jan 25th – In October, 1347, the Black Death (then called the “pestilence”) arrived in the city of Messina in Sicily. The plague, which had been raging in Asia, had followed the trade routes and stowed away on ships returning from the Black Sea. By 1352, 25 million people – or a third of Europe’s …
Jan 24th – The disappearance of straw and feather mattresses – not to mention general improvements in sanitation – have, in most places, relegated the bed bugs to nursery rhymes. (In fact, spiders are responsible for most modern bed bites!) Nevertheless, Cimex lectularius once had a distinguished career infesting beds, as well as the crevices …
Jan 23rd – Human prejudice against bacterial infections is understandably widespread. But fortunately, one of the most prevalent bacteria in the human intestinal tract is Bifidobacterium longum – and it’s good for you! Bifidobacterium are one of a number of probiotic bacteria that perform a range of useful services such as improving digestion, revving up …
Jan 22nd – For at least six thousand years, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used to make beer and bread! (It is also one of the many varieties of yeast used to make wine.) Its Latin name means “sugar fungus of the beer” – though it is widely used in biomedical research as well because it …
