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A team of researchers from Northwestern University says they have developed a cutting-edge, power-generating fuel cell that runs on dirt by capturing the electricity generated by microbes that live in soil. Previous attempts at microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been stymied by low power outputs and unreliable performance, but the Northwestern system seems to have conquered these issues. The inventors of the dirt-powered fuel cell believe it can revolutionize precision farming, while lessening the use of batteries that often contain toxic chemicals and rely on lithium and heavy metals that are a limited resource and can damage crops and soil....

Scientists have discovered several elusive species of microorganisms. Scientists have discovered new microscopic species. Researchers have found a number of very rare species of microorganisms, some of which have never been observed before and others which have eluded the attention of researchers for more than a century. Professor Genoveva Esteban of Bournemouth University and James Weiss, an independent researcher working in his own lab in Warsaw, Poland, with his two cats, made the discovery of these elusive species and published their findings in the scientific journal Protist. Their approach to research and the discovery of these new and rare...

A rigorous examination of the gut microbes of study participants who were fed three different kinds of supplements in different sequences concludes that people who had been eating the least amount of fiber before the study showed the greatest benefit from supplements, regardless of which ones they consumed. "The people who responded the best had been eating the least fiber to start with," said Lawrence David. The benefit of dietary fiber isn't just the easier pooping that advertisers tout. Fermentable fiber—dietary carbohydrates that the human gut cannot process on its own but some bacteria can digest—is also an essential source...

It's like something out of science fiction. Research led by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has revealed that a group of microbes, which feed off chemical reactions triggered by radioactivity, have been at an evolutionary standstill for millions of years. The discovery could have significant implications for biotechnology applications and scientific understanding of microbial evolution. "This discovery shows that we must be careful when making assumptions about the speed of evolution and how we interpret the tree of life," said Eric Becraft, the lead author on the paper. "It is possible that some organisms go into an evolutionary full-sprint, while...

The menagerie of bacterial and fungal species living among us is ever growing - and this is no exception in low-gravity environments, such as the International Space Station (ISS). Three of the four strains were isolated back in 2015 and 2016 – one was found on an overhead panel of the ISS research stations, the second was found in the Cupola, the third was found on the surface of the dining table; the fourth was found in an old HEPA filter returned to Earth in 2011. All four of the strains belong to a family of bacteria found in soil...

A new study finds that cultivation and enrichment of microbes on the face can infiltrate the lungs through unconscious aspirations and cause inflammatory responses and advanced stage lung cancer. The nose and the mouth were designed to take in oxygen without strain, uninhibited. The oxygen travels down the trachea and splits off into two tubes called the bronchi. From there, the oxygen travels down a series of bronchioles until it reaches the alveoli, which are tiny air sacs covered with blood vessels. These air sacs take the oxygen directly to the heart, where it is dispersed throughout the body. When...

[M]icrobes are currently used on Earth to extract materials of value from rock. Human miners crush the rocks and add liquid — usually water — to activate microbes dormant in the ore. The microbes then use chemical processes to break down rocks — essentially digesting them — to access nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. Valuable metals and minerals can be a bacterial waste product. On Earth, mining companies use bacteria to extract about 20 per cent of the world's copper and five per cent of our planet's gold. Mining experiment aboard the ISS. The basalt rock they used in the...

Ever since scientists discovered that certain microbes can get their energy from electrical charges, researchers have wondered how they do it. Bacteria don't have mouths, so they need another way to bring their fuel into their bodies. New research from Washington University in St. Louis reveals how one such bacteria pulls in electrons straight from an electrode source. The work from the laboratory of Arpita Bose, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, was published Nov. 5 in the scientific journal mBio. "The molecular underpinning of this process has been difficult to unravel until our work," Bose said. "This...

A rover scanning the surface of Mars for evidence of life might want to check for rocks that look like pasta, researchers report in the journal Astrobiology. The bacterium that controls the formation of such rocks on Earth is ancient and thrives in harsh environments that are similar to conditions on Mars, said University of Illinois geology professor Bruce Fouke, who led the new, NASA-funded study. "It has an unusual name, Sulfurihydrogenibium yellowstonense," he said. The bacterium that controls the formation of such rocks on Earth is ancient and thrives in harsh environments that are similar to conditions on Mars,...

For several million years, the Earth cycled through ice ages at a regular pace, but then, 1.25 million to 700,000 years ago, something changed: ice ages went from lasting 40,000 years to 100,000. … By looking at the microscopic shells of microorganisms called foraminifera, Adam Hasenfratz of the Geological Institute in Zürich, Switzerland, and colleagues, find evidence of a reduction in deep water circulation, causing less carbon dioxide to be released into the air. Oceanic changes in the Antarctic Zone could have ensured “that glacial conditions persisted despite orbital changes to the contrary”, the study says. The new research, presented...

While the team found that the bacteria isolated from the ISS did contain different genes than their Earthling counterparts, those genes did not make the bacteria more detrimental to human health. The bacteria are instead simply responding, and perhaps evolving, to survive in a stressful environment. As the conversation about sending travelers to Mars gets more serious, there has been an increasing interest in understanding how microbes behave in enclosed environments. "People will be in little capsules where they cannot open windows, go outside or circulate the air for long periods of time," said Hartmann. "We're genuinely concerned about how...

Scientists recently detected two previously unknown species of microbes in a Canadian dirt sample, and the specimens were so unusual that the researchers had to reorganize the tree of life to make room for them. The microbes, also known as protists, belong to a group with the tongue-twisting name hemimastigotes, and the first-ever genetic analysis of these peculiar microorganisms revealed that they were even stranger than anyone suspected. Hemimastigotes, first observed in the 1800s, were previously classified as a phylum within a much larger group known as a super-kingdom, though it was unclear where exactly they belonged. But new DNA...

Share The twin Viking spacecraft landed on Mars in 1976. They were cleaned to a level required to explore habitable regions. NASA NASA planetary protection officer suggests loosening limits on exploring Mars for life By Paul VoosenFeb. 22, 2018 , 5:25 PM Is there life on the surface of Mars? The clock is ticking on scientists’ window to solve that long-standing question before astronauts—and the microbes that live on them—contaminate the planet. Today, at a meeting in Washington, D.C., of NASA’s planetary science advisory committee, the agency’s new planetary protection officer raised the possibility of opening up a few of...

NASA astronauts successfully sequenced the DNA of microbes found aboard the International Space Station, marking the first time unknown organisms were sequenced and identified entirely in space. Previously, microbes had to be sent to Earth for analysis, and this new sequencing marks an important step in diagnosing astronaut illnesses and, someday, identifying any DNA-based life found on other planets... ... As a part of the Genes in Space-3 mission, astronauts on the space station last year touched a petri plate to surfaces on the space station and grew the bacteria found there into colonies, which NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson used...

Bored at work? Find yourself staring into space? NASA may have the job for you. It comes with a six-figure salary and civil service protection — and duties include saving the Earth. It sounds like a job from the movie “Men in Black” about government employees saving the Earth from creepy aliens. Cassie Conley is NASA’s planetary protection officer, and that is — sort of — what she does, but on a smaller scale, and not quite as messy. “The job is defending Earth from aliens, but they’re microbes, not space invaders,” she told CBS News. We asked if bringing...

Full title: Ancient bubbles in Australian rocks show early Earth's air weighed less than half today's atmosphere Air bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old Australian rock suggest the Earth's atmosphere weighed less than half of today and was much thinner than previously thought. Researchers analysed the size of air bubbles that formed at the top and bottom of lava flows along the Beasley River in Western Australia's Pilbara region almost three billion years ago and used the data to calculate the atmospheric pressure at the time. The results suggest that the air at the time exerted at most half the pressure...

Prozac may not be the only way to get rid of your serious blues. Soil microbes have been found to have similar effects on the brain and are without side effects and chemical dependency potentials. Learn how to harness the natural antidepressant in soil and make yourself happier and healthier. Read on to see how dirt makes you happy. Natural remedies have been around for untold centuries. These natural remedies included cures for almost any physical ailment as well as mental and emotional afflictions. Ancient healers may not have known why something worked but simply that it did. Modern scientists...

Love dark chocolate? Now you can eat it with much less guilt because scientists have discovered why it is so good for us. Previous studies have found daily consumption of dark chocolate reduces blood pressure and is good for the heart. Now scientists have discovered why this happens - and its down to how our guts ferment the fibre in cocoa beans. Researcher Maria Moore, from Louisiana State University said: 'We found that there are two kinds of microbes in the gut: the 'good' ones and the 'bad' ones. 'The good microbes, such as Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria, feast...

NASA's Curiosity rover has uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars that may have teemed with tiny organisms for tens of millions of years, far longer than scientists had imagined, new research suggests. The watering hole near the Martian equator existed about 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists say it was neither salty nor acidic, and contained nutrients _ a perfect spot to support microbes....

Microbes possibly feeding on the remains of an ancient forest may be generating billions of tons of methane deep beneath Antarctic ice, a new study suggests. The amount of this greenhouse gas — which would exist in the form of a frozen latticelike substance called methane hydrate — lurking beneath the ice sheet rivals that stored in the world's oceans, the researchers said. If the ice sheet collapses, the greenhouse gas could be released into the atmosphere and dramatically worsen global warming, researchers warn in a study published in the Aug. 30 issue of the journal Nature. "There could be...