Watch Man-Controlled Bacteria Build A Nanoscale Pyramid
Here's a link to an article on it.
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Also, if you want to listen to an incredibly interesting podcast about viruses, go here:
Meet the Scientist: Curtis Suttle - It's a Virus World and We Just Live On It
It includes such tidbits as "If all the viruses in the ocean were placed end to end, they would stretch 7 million light years." Wow.
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Episode 9 comes out next weekend. Stay tuned.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
BacterioFiles Episode 8

In this show, I report on four exciting stories: a plant-fungus symbiosis, making algae make medicine, fighting cancer with a virus, and making biofuels out of wood scraps.
(Image credit: Beth Rasala, UCSD)
Download Episode (8 MB, 9 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item
Story 2: News item/Journal paper
Story 3: News item 1/News item 2/Journal paper
Story 4: News item/Journal paper
Other interesting stories:
**A bleeding glacier
**The search for quantum behavior in viruses
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Labels:
algae,
bacteria,
biofuels,
biotechnology,
cancer,
climate change,
disease prevention,
endophytes,
environment,
eukaryotes,
fungi,
genes,
health,
plants,
proteins,
protists,
symbiosis,
viruses
Sunday, March 7, 2010
BacterioFiles Episode 7

In this show, I report on five exciting stories: a bacterial electric grid, engineering biofilms, beewolves that use antibiotics, tiny bacterial magnets, and microbial life's potential on Mars.
(Image credit: Johannes Kroiss and Martin Kaltenpoth, MPI for Chemical Ecology, Jena)
Download Episode (14 MB, 15 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Story 5
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item 1/News item 2/Journal paper
Story 2: Journal paper
Story 3: News item/Journal paper
Story 4: News item/Journal paper
Story 5: News item/Pre-Journal paper
Other interesting stories:
**A marine species’ genome shows that it is missing many genes but it can fix a lot of nitrogen
**A survey of intestinal microbes suggests the more the better
**Extremophiles in Yellowstone
**Nanofactories monitor bacterial communication
**Engineering bacteria to produce bee silk
**Getting corn to work with bacteria to fix its own nitrogen
**As microscopes watch bacteria, a new micro-ear could listen to them
**Using soil fungi to compost waste plastics
**Traces of microbes found to have colonized meteor crater
**Using bacteria to prevent food spoilage
**How an ocean organism turns carbon dioxide into sugar
**Intestinal microbes influence obesity
**Organism switches between amoeba-like and swimming cell
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
**Extremophiles in Yellowstone
**Nanofactories monitor bacterial communication
**Engineering bacteria to produce bee silk
**Getting corn to work with bacteria to fix its own nitrogen
**As microscopes watch bacteria, a new micro-ear could listen to them
**Using soil fungi to compost waste plastics
**Traces of microbes found to have colonized meteor crater
**Using bacteria to prevent food spoilage
**How an ocean organism turns carbon dioxide into sugar
**Intestinal microbes influence obesity
**Organism switches between amoeba-like and swimming cell
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
BacterioFiles Episode 6

In this show, I report on three exciting stories: a bullet-shaped virus that could fight cancer, engineering a new genetic code, and purifying water using bacteria.
(Image credit: UCLA)
Download Episode (8 MB, 8 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item/Journal paper
Story 2: News item/Journal paper
Story 3: News item/Press release
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Labels:
bacteria,
bioreactors,
biotechnology,
cancer,
disease prevention,
evolution,
genes,
genetics,
health,
proteins,
synthetic biology,
vaccines,
viruses
Sunday, February 7, 2010
BacterioFiles Episode 5

In this show, I report on four exciting stories: how rotifers do without sex, making diesel fuel using bacteria, a plant virus that tricks insects into spreading it, and how bacteria boost the immune system.
(Image courtesy of Kent Loeffler, Kathie T. Hodge and Chris Wilson; copyright Chris Wilson)
Download Episode (11 MB, 12 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item/Journal paper/Science Friday video
Story 2: News item/Journal paper
Story 3: News item/Journal paper
Story 4: News item/Journal paper
Other interesting stories:
**Squid and its glowing symbiotic bacteria synchronize their activities
**Engineering bacteria to produce silk
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
BacterioFiles Episode 4

In this show, I report on four exciting stories: using slime molds to design networks, bacteria working together to reduce environmental damage, a stomach germ that helps prevent tuberculosis, and bacterial colonies that flash in synchrony.
Download Episode (10 MB, 11 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item/Journal paper
Story 2: News item/Journal paper
Story 3: News item/Journal paper
Story 4: News item/Journal paper
Download Episode (10 MB, 11 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item/Journal paper
Story 2: News item/Journal paper
Story 3: News item/Journal paper
Story 4: News item/Journal paper
Nature video for story 4:
Other interesting stories:
**Bacteria detoxify selenium in soil
**Scientists find heat-loving organisms in Arctic waters and trace them to their probable origins
**Distillery plans to use bacteria to digest yeasty waste, using the resulting methane to produce electricity (or power local cars), ultimately reducing costs
**Scientists find that eating lots of apples may lead to more good bacteria in the gut
**Researchers discover that some kinds of bacteria have membrane-bound internal structures, which were once thought to only exist in eukaryotes (like animals and plants)
**Development of a potential probiotic treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
BacterioFiles Episode 3
In this show, I report on four exciting stories: a new giant virus, bacteria that fight cancer, ancient microbial DNA, and using viruses to modify plants.
Download Episode (8 MB, 9 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item/Journal paper
Story 2: News item/Journal paper
Story 3: News item/Journal paper
Story 4: News item/Journal paper
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Download Episode (8 MB, 9 minutes)
Download Sections:
Intro
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Ending Comments
Show notes:
Story 1: News item/Journal paper
Story 2: News item/Journal paper
Story 3: News item/Journal paper
Story 4: News item/Journal paper
Post questions or comments here or email to bacteriofiles at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening!
Subscribe at iTunes
This show features music from Mevio's podsafe Music Alley.
Labels:
amoebae,
archaea,
bacteria,
cancer,
disease prevention,
evolution,
extremophiles,
health,
plants,
viruses
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