Yellow Fever Mosquito -a

New Technique Allows Development Of Better Vaccines Against Yellow Fever

Yellow fever is one of those diseases that you really want to avoid contracting. But for 200,000 people every year, they don’t receive that option. A Yellow Condition The yellow fever virus is the originating name for its parent genus of Flaviviruses, where the yellow of its name in Latin (Flavus) colors all the rest […]

SalmonellaNIAID

Uncovering The Small Syringe That Bacteria Use To Attack Your Cells

When discussing pathogens infecting cells, we often turn to discussing viruses. But bacteria also have their methods of infection and one of those ways involves injecting toxic compounds into target cells. This usually helps in their bodily invasion by weakening the immune system or outright killing cells. A Dangerous Concoction These compounds come in the […]

Yeast membrane proteins

The Scientific Creation of a Fully Synthetic Living Organism

Progress continues on the Synthetic Yeast Project, an international scientific initiative that aims to build a yeast genome out of completely synthetic chromosomes. The latest update involves seven papers published together in the journal Science detailing the five pre-designed chromosomes that have been successfully swapped into the genome of yeast. The model organism S. cerevisiae […]

Ant on mosshill02

Using Genetically Modified Ants To Figure Out Just How Ants Work

Ants are fascinating. As examples of highly social, structured, and often single-minded species, ants easily pique the interest of biologists and even scientists as a whole. Similar to bees, their colony structure exists as highly divergent from the rest of the multicellular life in the world. Most of it, at least. They can be viewed, […]

Blume Gewaechshaus Mainau

The Symbiotic and Parasitic Relationship Between Orchids and Fungi

We’ve discussed symbiotic relationships before, from the endosymbiosis that bacteria have with plants and fungi to the mutualistic relationships between plants and fungi directly. But those occasional dalliances are nowhere on the scale of what happens with orchids in the family Orchidaceae. The Deadly Life of Orchids Practically all orchids currently known, 28,000 and counting, […]

US Army Rangers parachute into Lake Lanier 140508-A-PP104-171

How Rare Species of Bacteria Work Together To Protect Their Community

Communities of bacteria in the soil and in aquatic environments work together to assist each other. For scientists, it is often difficult to study these organisms because their cultivation relies on the inclusion of the other species being in their environment as well. Attempts to culture individual species on, say, a petri dish usually fails. […]

4cell embryo

Creating An Artificial Embryo Using Genetically Modified Stem Cells

Cloning is a difficult process. Even with modern technologies, the best we can do is generate matching organs from a person’s stem cells, but this itself is still tricky to accomplish. Actually cloning a whole organism? We’re nowhere near where we need to be. The Troubles of Cloning The main problem inherent in this process […]

Soybean cyst nematode and egg SEM

Figuring Out The Lifestyles and Behaviors of Parasitic Worms

Parasites are some of the most diverse organisms found in nature. They can take a number of different forms and are spread liberally across the kingdom of life. From bacteria to plants to even some creatures in the mammal realm, parasites are everywhere. The Diverse World of Parasites However, even with that understanding, that doesn’t […]

Aedes aegypti adult overies

CRISPR Is Not Immune To The Development Of Resistance Genes

Depending on your point of view about biotechnology, recent revelations about the effects of CRISPR on organisms could be good or bad. As a science writer for Bioscription, I take the news as a little of both. Gene Drives So, what happened? Recent research between the University of Kansas and Cornell University has discovered that […]