"Bacteria, for example, decompose organic material that, among other things, provides the majority of nitrogen needed by the plants we eat," Horner-Devine says. "So understanding the distribution and ...

Long dismissed as featureless, disorganized sacks, bacteria are now revealing a multitude of elegant internal structures. Ewen Callaway investigates a new field in cell biology. Nearly a decade ago ...

The language of protein translation contains synonyms. Each three-nucleotide sequence on a strand of messenger RNA is called a codon and corresponds to the instruction to add a particular amino acid ...

Sweat rarely smells on its own. Body odor develops when bacteria on the skin break down compounds in sweat and release volatile chemicals that evaporate into the air. This interaction between sweat ...

The number of resistant strains has increased, partly due to the misuse of antibiotics. This has resulted in more infections that are difficult to control. MRSA is methicillin-resistant staphylococcus ...

Bacteria can be engineered to perform various tasks. For example bacteria has been engineered to make valuable proteins for medical use, and to make enzymes that are used to help degrade toxic ...