From science centric, oak and beech seem to encourage root microbes to facilitate mineral weathering. Root microbes break down minerals to create usable nutrients, like iron, to the trees.

From the Times of India, Capsaicin changes beneficial proteins to help fight fat. It’s action is still to be elucidated, though.

From Physorg.com, marsupials, bats, rodents and tenrecs harbor the genes for Filoviruses, such as Ebola and Marburg virus. This shows the power of examining genomes to discover not only shared ancestry but common infection and incorporation of virus into genomes.

Abstract

From Physorg.com, Mycobacterium vaccae(a soil bacteria) was fed to mice and the mice were tested in maze runs to see if it increased learning ability. The increase in learning was only temporary, however. Read the rest of this entry »

From BBC News: The marine bacteria found on sushi transferred its genetic material to the microfauna of humans who consume sushi.

From Science Daily, iron (III) hexacyanoferrate (II) or Prussian blue salt when added to ammonia makes hydrogen cyanide. Which is an important building block when it comes to creating life. Leading to stuff like urea, lactic acid and dimethylhydantoin. Interesting bit about it concentrating carbon and creating hematite.

Post 100!

So I just joined Facebook. And I also belong to Twitter, Digg, Linkedin and MicrobeWorld. Would you call Netvibes one? Anyway, I’ve been reluctant about joining facebook because I have this impression that I have to be more proactive about being social. I have to acknowledge what “my friends” are posting and doing on there. For anyone following me on this blog, I’ve been at this for four years and haven’t broken a hundred posts yet (but soon). My just not chatty. So we’ll have to see how this goes.

From Physorg.com, findings from the red planet shows that the amount of methane (CH4) in the Martian atmosphere is not caused by meteorites. So now the thinking is that it is caused by the reaction of rock with water and CO2 or it is biological.
Given the amount of CO2 in Mars’ atmosphere, I’m leaning toward the geologic origin. But one can dream of Martian Microbes.

From Physorg, several species of cyanobacteria create rope-like structures that “allows them to colonize physically unstable sedimentary environments, and to act as successful pioneers in the biostabilization process.”(From the abstract) These ropes wrap around grains of sand to prevent the sand grains from shifting.

Abstract

From BBC, a study that looks at wood falls(trees and other vegetable matter that settle on the ocean floor) and what creatures eat them. And there is a crab that eats from these wood falls. Connected to this is the worms that eat whale bone. As humans explore more and more of the ocean, the different sources of energy used is incredible. Then there is the florescent coral that heals itself.