BacterioFiles
513 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★ - 20 ratingsThe podcast for microbe lovers: reporting on exciting news about bacteria, archaea, and sometimes even eukaryotic microbes and viruses.
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Episodes
491: Less Liquid Lands Losing Lichens
May 27, 2024 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.44 MBThis episode: Trends of declining lichen populations and biocrust cover overall match trends of increasing temperatures in Colorado dryland! Download Episode (6.4 MB, 9.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Cherry chlorotic rusty spot associated partitivirus Takeaways: Global climate change is affecting almost every natural system on the planet, in predictable and also sometimes unexpected, complex ways. Microbes perform key roles in many different ecosystems, providing an...
490: Parasitoid Pox Partners
March 11, 2024 05:00 - 11 minutes - 7.67 MBThis episode: A virus partners with a parasitoid wasp to help exploit fruit fly victims! Download Episode (7.7 MB, 11.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Actinomadura livida Takeaways Parasitoid wasps have an interesting lifestyle: they inject their eggs into the larvae of other insects, and their young hatch and grow up by consuming the host from the inside. Some of these wasps also inject a virus along with the egg, which supports the wasp offspring by suppressing the ...
489: Soil Smell Synthesis Significance
January 29, 2024 06:00 - 8 minutes - 5.99 MBThis episode: Many organisms produce the smell of earth, geosmin, and many others can sense it–but why? Download Episode (6.0 MB, 8.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Acidianus spindle-shaped virus 1 News item Takeaways The smell of soil or earth is one of the most recognizable smells, and comes largely from a chemical called geosmin, produced by many different kinds of bacteria. Many animal species are sensitive to geosmin, some attracted by it and others repe...
488: Social Slimes Synchronize Sorties
December 11, 2023 06:00 - 10 minutes - 7.31 MBThis episode: Slime mold amoebas Fonticula alba have interesting and unique foraging and reproductive behaviors! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Cajanus cajan Panzee virus News item Takeaways How did life develop from single-celled organisms acting independently into the complex, multicellular organisms we see and are today? Although it is difficult to look back through time to study how ancient organisms may have developed along thi...
487: Probiotic Pulverizes Pathogen Persisters
November 20, 2023 06:00 - 11 minutes - 8.24 MBThis episode: A probiotic strain of E. coli can target and destroy pathogens that survive a treatment of antibiotics! Download Episode (8.2 MB, 12 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces griseoruber Takeaways Antibiotic resistance is becoming more and more of a problem as bacterial pathogens develop resistance to more and more drugs. For some people who develop an infection that is resistant to everything, it's as if they were living back in the days before an...
486: Biohybrid Bacteria Build Biomass
October 30, 2023 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.51 MBThis episode: Incorporating light-absorbing molecules into bacterial membranes can allow bacteria to use solar energy to transform nitrogen gas into fertilizer! Download Episode (6.5 MB, 9.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Wheat dwarf virus Takeaways Turning nitrogen gas into biologically useful compounds, such as protein or ammonia for fertilizer, is an essential part of the global nitrogen cycle and therefore, for agriculture. Today much fertilizer is produced fr...
485: Small Cell Sculpts Sticky Snot Sphere
October 16, 2023 05:00 - 11 minutes - 7.83 MBThis episode: A marine protist predator traps prey microbes in an attractive bubble of mucus, eats what it wants, and lets the rest sink, possibly sequestering significant amounts of carbon! Download Episode (7.8 MB, 11.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bat associated cyclovirus 1 News item Takeaways The oceans have a lot of unique, unexplored life in them. This is true on a macro level but even more on a microscopic level, with many different kinds of microbes of va...
484: Bacteriophages Boost Brains
October 02, 2023 05:00 - 10 minutes - 7.5 MBThis episode: Certain phages in the gut are linked with increases in performance on some cognitive tests! Download Episode (7.5 MB, 10.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces bikiniensis News item Takeaways Our gut microbiota includes a large number of viruses, mostly bacteriophages. These fall into two groups, the lytic kind that infects and reproduces itself immediately in a host, and the lysogenic kind that can integrate its genome into the host bacterial gen...
483: Recycling Resources Raises Robustness
September 18, 2023 05:00 - 10 minutes - 7.28 MBThis episode: Adding tags to proteins to increase their degradation can help engineered bacteria grow and survive better under various conditions! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Lactococcus virus sk1 News item Takeaways Engineering bacteria with new genetic pathways allows us to use them in many new and promising applications. Some of these are industrial fermentations, growing large quantities of bacteria to use as catalysts for product...
482: Colony Concentric Clock Construction
September 04, 2023 05:00 - 14 minutes - 9.64 MBThis episode: Single-celled bacteria can act independently to create patterns and structure in their biofilm communities! Download Episode (9.6 MB, 14.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Dictyostelium discoideum Skipper virus News item Takeaways Large multicellular organisms like us have interesting mechanisms for using one set of genetic instructions present in all cells to form a large, complex community of many different types of cells with different structures and fu...
481: Hijacker-Host Sequence Swap
August 21, 2023 05:00 - 10 minutes - 7.5 MBThis episode: Gene transfers between viruses and eukaryotes have happened many times throughout evolutionary history! Download Episode (7.5 MB, 10.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Mycoplasma subdolum News item Takeaways As we’ve all seen recently, viruses can cause a lot of trouble. Their biology requires them to be parasites inside the cells of their hosts, and they can cause devastating disease, so it’s hard to think of them as having played important roles in the ...
480: Bait Bottlenecks Bear Bacteria
July 03, 2023 05:00 - 8 minutes - 5.93 MBThis episode: Human-based food used as bait by hunters can reduce bears' gut microbe diversity! Download Episode (5.9 MB, 8.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Actinomadura verrucosospora News item Takeaways Gut microbes are important for the health of most animals. In humans, many things can affect our gut microbe community, including diet, medications, and lifestyle. Eating a varied diet with diverse kinds of plant-based foods can maintain a healthy, functional commun...
479: Uncomplicated Critters Conquer Cancer
May 22, 2023 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.35 MBThis episode: Simple microscopic animals can survive extreme radiation by ejecting damaged cells that might otherwise become cancer! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 9.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Helleborus net necrosis virus News item Takeaways Any multicellular organism with different types of cells needs some sort of cell regulation, to keep each cell type doing what it’s supposed to do for the good of the organism as a whole. We know what happens when this regulati...
478: Babies Bear Bacterial Birthright
April 24, 2023 05:00 - 10 minutes - 7.35 MBThis episode: How family members share gut microbes across multiple generations! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Dyozetapapillomavirus 1 Takeaways Our gut’s microbial communities can greatly influence our health, for good or bad. The makeup of these communities can be influenced by many factors, including genetics, health status, diet, and other aspects of the environment we live in. We’ve learned a lot about this topic recently, but there...
477: Hijackers Hitchhike on Hyphal Highways
March 27, 2023 05:00 - 10 minutes - 7.09 MBThis episode: Bacteriophages can hitch a ride on bacteria they don't infect to travel through soil on fungal filaments, potentially helping their carriers by infecting and killing their competitors! Download Episode (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Epinotia aporema granulovirus News item Takeaways For tiny bacteria, partially dry soil can be like a vast system of caverns, with particles of soil separated by air-filled spaces much bigger than individual ba...
476: Bamboo Breakdown Benefits Beetle Babies
March 13, 2023 05:00 - 11 minutes - 7.72 MBThis episode: Beetles inoculate bamboo with a fungus that consumes the bamboo sugars to feed the beetle larvae! Download Episode (7.7 MB, 11.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Saccharomyces cerevisiae virus L-BC (La) News item Video: Lizard beetle laying its egg Takeaways The structural polymers that make up plants, such as cellulose, can be difficult for many organisms to digest. Some kinds of bacteria and fungi can do it, and some animals (cows, pandas, termites) p...
475: Modifying Mixed Microbiota
February 27, 2023 06:00 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBThis episode: New techniques allow specific modifications in certain members of a complex community of microbes, without isolating them in pure culture first! Download Episode (11.5 MB, 16.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Tomato golden mosaic virus News item Takeaways The technology for understanding and manipulating microbial genetics has come a long way in a short time. It used to take years even to sequence a small genome, and now thousands can be sequenced in jus...
474: Stalker Cells Stop Seafood Sickness
January 23, 2023 06:00 - 6 minutes - 4.79 MBThis episode: Predatory bacteria could protect lobster farms from disease-causing bacteria! Download Episode (4.8 MB, 7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Gordonia rubripertincta Takeaways Antibiotics have done wonders for controlling bacterial pathogens. Many people have lived that would otherwise have died, and some industries have produced much more than they would have, particularly those involved in animal farming. However, more and more targeted pathogens are d...
473: Bacteriophage Bunks in Bacterial Barriers
December 26, 2022 06:00 - 9 minutes - 6.84 MBThis episode: A bacteriophage that overcomes the bacterial CRISPR/Cas immune system by interrupting the CRISPR DNA with its own genome! Download Episode (6.8 MB, 10 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Wenzhou mammarenavirus Takeaways Bacteria have many ways to resist being exploited by bacteriophage viruses, including the adaptable CRISPR/Cas system that uses a piece of viral nucleic acid sequence to target and destroy incoming phages. But phages also have many ways to evade...
472: Caulobacter Condensates Compartmentalize Kinase
November 21, 2022 06:00 - 15 minutes - 10.9 MBThis episode: Bacteria can use blobs of disordered proteins to quickly adapt to new conditions! Thanks to Dr. Saumya Saurabh for his contribution! Download Episode (10.9 MB, 15.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Drosophila melanogaster Micropia virus Takeaways Bacteria can adapt to environmental fluctuations via mechanisms operating at the various levels of the central dogma, or metabolism (stringent response). Recently, researchers at Stanford University dis...
471: Phage Fight Foils Fitness
August 29, 2022 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.79 MBThis episode: A phage both kills bacterial pathogens and selects for reduced virulence! Download Episode (6.3 MB, 9.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Helminthosporium victoriae 145S virus News item Takeaways Using bacteria-killing viruses to treat bacterial infections, or phage therapy, can be a good alternative to antibiotics in some situations when there are no effective antibiotics for a particular infection. But bacteria can evolve resistance to phages as w...
470: Super Small Symbionts Soothe Symptoms
July 11, 2022 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.32 MBThis episode: Tiny bacteria that live on larger bacteria reduce the inflammation and gum disease the bigger microbes cause in the mouths of mice! Download Episode (6.3 MB, 9.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Actinomadura viridilutea Takeaways Even bacteria can be hosts to smaller symbionts living on them. Some kinds of these extremely tiny bacteria live in various parts of our bodies, and are sometimes associated with inflammation and the resulting disease. But being...
469: Prophage Provides Partial Protection
April 04, 2022 05:00 - 11 minutes - 7.59 MBThis episode: A virus lurking in a bacterial genome protects its host population from infection with other phages, by killing off infected cells! Download Episode (7.6 MB, 11.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Olive latent ringspot virus Takeaways Many bacteriophages just go in and gobble up all their host's resources to make a bunch of new viruses right away. Others play a longer game, splicing into and lurking in the host's genome across multiple generations until c...
468 - Commensal Can Kill Cholera
February 28, 2022 06:00 - 8 minutes - 5.77 MBThis episode: Harmless gut microbes resist cholera with good defense or better offense! Download Episode (5.8 MB, 8.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces corchorusii News item Takeaways The community of microbes in our guts is highly diverse, yet generally they all coexist relatively peacefully. Some pathogens can invade this community and cause massive disruptions. Cholera is a disease caused by a pathogen that injects its competing bacteria with toxi...
467: Prion Pivots Productive Pathways
December 27, 2021 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9.54 MBThis episode: Prions in yeast can allow better adaptation to changing conditions! Download Episode (9.5 MB, 13.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Hepatovirus F News item Takeaways Prions can be deadly. They're misshapen proteins that cause a cascade of misfolding of similar proteins if they get into the nervous system, resulting in neurodegeneration in mammals. But in other organisms, they are not always so scary; some fungi use prions to regulate their behavior...
466: Microbes Mining Mars Minerals
December 06, 2021 06:00 - 9 minutes - 6.2 MBThis episode: Bacteria are able to extract metals from rocks for industrial use, even in microgravity! Download Episode (6.2 MB, 9.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Decapod ambidensovirus 1 News item Takeaways As humanity makes progress toward becoming an interplanetary species, consideration is needed on how travelers can survive and thrive in distant places. These methods may look very different from what works well on Earth, with differences in gravity, atmo...
465: Partners Produce Predator Prevention
November 22, 2021 06:00 - 11 minutes - 7.73 MBThis episode: Bacteria living inside soil fungus produce toxins that can protect their host from tiny predators! Download Episode (7.7 MB, 11.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Mycobacterium virus DLane Takeaways Soils have many different organisms cooperating and competing for resources. Some little worms called nematodes prey on fungi in the soil, while fungi may effectively defend themselves or strike back with toxins or traps that catch and kill the worms. On top of t...
464: Prodding Pollen's Popping Process
November 09, 2021 01:11 - 8 minutes - 6.02 MBThis episode: Certain nectar-dwelling bacteria can induce pollen to germinate to access their tasty proteins! Download Episode (6.0 MB, 8.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Clostridium oceanicum News item Takeaways Nectar in flowers seems like it would be a great place for microbes to live, since it has so much sugar, but it's actually somewhat difficult to thrive solely in and on nectar. The carbon in sugar is only one essential element for life, and there's en...
463: Selectively Stimulating Cell Squatters
September 20, 2021 05:00 - 12 minutes - 8.24 MBThis episode: Bacteria produce a compound that causes a phage lurking in the genome of a competing species to wake up and start killing that competitor! Download Episode (8.2 MB, 12.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Zaire ebolavirus News item Takeaways Some bacteriophages infect and immediately destroy their hosts in a burst of new viruses, while others can be stealthier, integrating their genome into the genome of the host and remaining there quietly even over...
462: Super Ciliate Symbiont Set
September 13, 2021 05:00 - 8 minutes - 6.08 MBThis episode: A eukaryote has symbionts living in it: green algae and also purple bacteria, a combo never seen before! Download Episode (6.1 MB, 8.8 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Staphylococcus virus phiETA News item Takeaways Having bacteria as endosymbionts is fairly common in life on Earth: almost all eukaryotes have them in the form of mitochondria and sometimes chloroplasts. These former bacteria somehow got inside the ancestral eukaryote, either as para...
461: Ingrained Invader Inhibits Infectors
September 06, 2021 05:00 - 8 minutes - 5.72 MBThis episode: Training a phage strain on bacteria can increase its ability to control those bacteria for much longer than an untrained phage! Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Pepper yellow leaf curl Indonesia virus News item Takeaways With resistance to antibiotics spreading more and more among deadly bacteria, finding alternatives to treat infections is becoming more important. One option is phage therapy, using viruses that infect...
460: Prokaryote Publicity Prevents Protist Processes
August 16, 2021 05:00 - 7 minutes - 5.27 MBThis episode: A bacterial communication signal makes algae stop growing, which helps them survive virus attacks! Download Episode (5.3 MB, 7.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Veillonella parvula Takeaways Many interesting interactions between microbes take place in the ocean. As single-celled organisms lacking complex sensory organs, many such interactions and communications are mediated by chemical signals. Some bacteria, for example, each produce small amounts of c...
459: Prokaryotes Provide Polyp Perserverance
August 02, 2021 05:00 - 8 minutes - 5.69 MBThis episode: Transplanting microbes from some corals to others could help the corals survive high temperatures! Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces olivaceoviridis News item Takeaways The ever-rising temperatures of our modern world are putting more and more stress on various ecosystems. This is true even on the ocean floor: record-high temperatures damage reefs by causing coral bleaching, in which corals lose their photo...
458: Slimy Cells Stop Sinking
July 19, 2021 05:00 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBThis episode: Bacteria can resist the force of gravity in liquid culture by covering themselves with goopy sugar polymers like parachutes! Download Episode (10.4 MB, 15.2 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brevicoryne brassicae virus Takeaways Put bacteria in a centrifuge, and most of the time you end up with a compact pellet of cells at the bottom of the tube, and mostly cell-free liquid above it. Bacteria do have ways to remain suspended in liquid, even without consta...
457: Small Cell Studies: Superior Scoops
June 28, 2021 05:00 - 8 minutes - 5.74 MBThis episode: Newspapers report on scientific studies about microbiomes a fair amount, but certain kinds of studies are more likely than others to show up in the news! Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Cafeteriavirus-dependent mavirus Takeaways Research into the human microbiome has generated a lot of interest, even among non-scientists. This is especially true since the beginning of the Human Microbiome Project in 2007. But sometimes thin...
456: Invader Induces Increased Immensity
June 21, 2021 05:00 - 10 minutes - 6.93 MBThis episode: A virus of archaea stops cells from dividing, so they just keep getting bigger and releasing more viruses! Download Episode (6.9 MB, 10.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Streptomyces caelestis Takeaways Viruses affect their hosts many different ways: instant hostile takeover of cellular machinery, lurking unseen in the genome for generations, inducing reduced cell division or excessive cell division, and more. Archaeal viruses are relatively unknown in ...
455: Marine Microbes Make Megapascal Management Molecule
June 07, 2021 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.56 MBThis episode, in honor of World Ocean Day: Bacteria that may move between high and low pressure areas in the ocean use a particular molecule to protect their cells from being crushed! Download Episode (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Rickettsia rickettsii News item Takeaways Life in the ocean can have many challenges, depending on the organism and where it lives. Microbes can be found in almost every region, from the warmest to coldest, brightest t...
454: Hitchhiking Horticultural Helpers
May 31, 2021 05:00 - 8 minutes - 5.55 MBThis episode: Spores of some bacteria latch onto the tails of other bacteria and ride along as they move around in the soil! Download Episode (5.5 MB, 8.0 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bohle iridovirus News item Takeaways The soil is a complex environment, and microbes that live in soil need complex lifestyles to thrive. There are many examples of cooperation, competition, and other adaptations to highly varied situations. In this study, bacteria that ...
453: Phenazine Faciliates Phosphorus Feeding
May 24, 2021 05:00 - 7 minutes - 5.01 MBThis episode: Some bacteria produce antibiotics that can also help them gather more nutrients! Download Episode (5.0 MB, 7.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Diadromus pulchellus toursvirus News item 1 Takeaways Antibiotics have saved a lot of lives since they were discovered and used to treat many previously untreatable bacterial infections. But bacteria themselves have been making antibiotics much longer than we have, to help compete in their environment. How...
452: Prokaryotic Partner Powers Protist
May 03, 2021 05:00 - 18 minutes - 12.4 MBThis episode: Single-celled eukaryotes can thrive without oxygen with the help of bacterial endosymbionts that respire nitrate the way our mitochondria respire oxygen! Thanks to Jon Graf for his contribution! Download Episode (12.4 MB, 18.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Brenneria salicis News item 1 / News item 2 Takeaways The combination of a bacterium and other microbe into the first eukaryote was a big advance in evolutionary history; it made possib...
451: Phototrophs Fancy Floating Feasts
April 19, 2021 05:00 - 7 minutes - 4.89 MBThis episode: Despite being photosynthetic, some kinds of algae engage in predatory behavior, hunting and consuming live bacteria! Download Episode (4.9 MB, 7.1 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus 1 News item Takeaways Although most of them are microscopic, algae perform a significant portion of the photosynthesis on the planet, because there are so many of them. But even though photosynthesis seems like a reliable way of acquir...
450: Subterranean Spotlights Support Cyanobacteria
April 05, 2021 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.58 MBThis episode: Lighting in caves open to tourists supports the growth of unwanted photosynthetic bacteria! Download Episode (6.6 MB, 9.5 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Dill cryptic virus 2 Takeaways Caves can contain amazing beauty, intricate geological formations formed by minerals, water, and time. Some, such as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, have been fitted with instruments to allow tourists to pass through and see the wonders within; definitely a worthwhile ex...
449: Paralyzed Poisons Push Power
March 29, 2021 05:00 - 8 minutes - 5.76 MBThis episode: Deep-sea bacteria can detoxify cadmium and convert it to light-capturing particles! Download Episode (5.8 MB, 8.4 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Arthrobacter virus Sonny Takeaways Hydrothermal vents can have thriving communities, despite being too deep for much light to penetrate. Microbes can derive energy from chemicals coming out of the vent, and form the foundation of the food chain. But toxic heavy metals also come out of the vent, including lead...
448: Myxomycete Makes Mycelial Memories
March 22, 2021 05:00 - 6 minutes - 4.58 MBFinally found some good stories, so we're back! This episode: How slime molds encode and use memories built into their own bodies! Download Episode (4.6 MB, 6.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Aeromonas salmoncida News item Takeaways Despite being single-celled organisms, slime molds have fairly complex behavior, including a basic form of memory. They often grow as a network of tubes of cytoplasm branching out from one place to find and exploit new sources of food...
447: Big Bacteria Bank Behaviors
February 08, 2021 06:00 - 12 minutes - 8.71 MBThis episode: Giant bacteria with many chromosomes in each cell carry extra genes to help them live in many different environments! Download Episode (8.7 MB, 12.7 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Propionibacterium virus SKKY News item Takeaways We think of bacteria a certain way: too small to see and having mostly just a single large chromosome with all the genes they need for their lifestyle and not much more. And most bacteria are like that. But not all! Giant ba...
446: Biofilm Benefits Bone Braces
February 01, 2021 06:00 - 7 minutes - 5.46 MBThis episode: The biofilm that probiotic bacteria can leave behind on a titanium implant seems to help it integrate better with the existing skeleton, with less inflammation and risk of infection! Download Episode (5.5 MB, 7.9 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Methylobacterium organophilum News item Takeaways Skeletal implants make it a lot easier for many people to stay mobile as they age, but the surgical procedure of implanting is risky. Its invasive nature puts ...
445: Living Lurking Landmine Locators
January 25, 2021 06:00 - 9 minutes - 6.42 MBThis episode: Engineered bacteria encapsulated in little beads sense chemicals from landmines and give off light! Download Episode (6.4 MB, 9.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Bifidobacterium pullorum Takeaways Landmines are a good way to take an enemy by surprise and do some damage. They're so good that some places in the world still aren't safe to go decades after a conflict, due to intact landmines hidden in the area. In order to detect them from a distance to aid in...
444: Strange Sequence Stops Cell Subjugation
January 18, 2021 06:00 - 10 minutes - 7.1 MBThis episode: An interesting bacterial genetic element protects against viruses in a unique way! Download Episode (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Mongoose associated gemykibivirus 1 News item Takeaways Even single-celled, microscopic organisms such as bacteria have to deal with deadly viruses infecting them. And while they don't have an immune system with antibodies and macrophages like we do, they still have defenses against infection, mostly based on s...
443: Gut Group Gives Gamma Guard
January 11, 2021 06:00 - 10 minutes - 7.32 MBThis episode: Certain gut microbes protect mice from harmful effects of high-energy radiation! Download Episode (7.3 MB, 10.6 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Solenopsis invicta virus-1 News item Takeaways High-energy radiation can be very dangerous. Besides a long-term increased risk of cancer due to DNA damage, a high enough dose of radiation can cause lethal damage to multiple systems in the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system. Finding ...
442: Fossil Phototroph Phagocytosis
December 28, 2020 06:00 - 10 minutes - 7.05 MBThis episode: Algae surviving impact that killed the dinosaurs seem to have consumed other organisms to make it through the dark times! Download Episode (7.1 MB, 10.3 minutes) Show notes: Microbe of the episode: Chaetoceros tenuissimus RNA virus 01 News item Takeaways Being able to look through time and learn about what might have happened to creatures throughout Earth's history is what makes paleontology great. Everyone knows about dinosaurs and what happened to them at the end o...