What is in the air in your home, where you work, or in public buildings? There may be bioaerosols — airborne biological contaminants. By Actionbioscience.org, a non-commercial, educational web site created to promote bioscience literacy.

The repeated emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains is a problem that has long plagued public health. Bacteria have always possessed the ability to protect themselves from naturally occurring antibiotics by acquiring resistance through the exchange of genetic material with other bacteria. By Actionbioscience.org, a non-commercial, educational web site created to promote bioscience literacy.

Avian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) viruses. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

Pathogenic microbes can be put into two general categories: those acquired from the environment and those acquired from other humans and animals. Microbes that are acquired from the environment typically can survive in environmental niches and also in their hosts. By Microbe Magazine, the monthly news magazine of the American Society for Microbiology.

Since the epidemic of ‘mad cow disease’ in the 1980s and 90s, and the emergence of its human equivalent, variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, there has been a great deal of research into prions, the causative agents. By Science in School, promoting inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, and everyone else involved in European science education.

Discovering how infectious diseases spread may seem purely a matter for medical science – but taking a close look at the numbers can also tell us a great deal. By Science in School, promoting inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, and everyone else involved in European science education.

Our modern lifestyle, in which we can travel around the globe in a matter of days, has made it easier for infectious diseases to spread. By Science in School, promoting inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, and everyone else involved in European science education.

The closest that many of us will ever come to malaria is a handful of pills prescribed before a trip to a tropical country, or the stories of ancient expeditions wiped out by mysterious fevers. By Science in School, promoting inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, and everyone else involved in European science education.

Over the past decade, the complexity of climate change has been the subject of extensive discussion. However, microbial factors associated with climate change, notably infectious diseases, are rarely, if ever, included in climate models. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

For most of the time, the population of bacteria in the large intestine lives in balance within its confines. By The Science Learning Hub, a national project designed to support the effective teaching of science in New Zealand schools.

Even though free-living, mycoplasmas depend on their hosts for key nutrients, including purines, pyrimidines, several amino acids, and sterols, which are incorporated into the membranes of these wall-less bacteria. These requirements reflect their relative genomic simplicity. By Microbe Magazine, the monthly news magazine of the American Society for Microbiology.

The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) aims to characterize the microbial communities found at several different sites on the human body, including nasal passages, oral cavities, skin, gastrointestinal tract, and urogenital tract, and to analyze the role of these microbes in human health and disease. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

Though the influenza virus has been killing humans for thousands of years, the virus itself was not discovered until the 1930s. Without the knowledge about the origin and transmission of this disease, the 1918 Spanish flu had a terrible impact, infecting about 30%, and killing about 3%, of the world’s population. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

In a 1945 interview with The New York Times, Alexander Fleming, who won a Nobel Prize that year for his discovery of pencillin, warned that misuse of the drug could result in selection for resistant bacteria. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

Areas in California where Western fence lizards were removed had a subsequent drop in numbers of the ticks that transmit Lyme disease, scientists have discovered. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

Microorganisms — bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, viruses and protists — are often easy to overlook. For the most part (except fungal fruiting bodies seen as mushrooms) we can’t see microbes. The effects of microbes we feel are usually associated with an illness. By Actionbioscience.org, a non-commercial, educational web site created to promote bioscience literacy.

Microbes release innumerable products into their environment, including many antibiotics. This fact has captivated scientists and clinicians for more than a century, and many of the details of the early history of antibiotics are familiar even to beginning students of microbiology and pharmacology. By Microbe Magazine, the monthly news magazine of the American Society for Microbiology.

Population mobility is a main factor in globalization of public health threats and risks, specifically distribution of antimicrobial drug–resistant organisms. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

Pfiesteria, referred to by the popular media as “the cell from hell,” is a dinoflagellate—and, unlike most dinoflagellates, has a complex life cycle, consisting of about 20 different stages. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

The twentieth century was marked by significant advances in understanding of microbes and infectious disease. Nonetheless, disease pandemics remain, food and waterborne illnesses are frequent, multidrug-resistant microbes are on the rise, and many needed drugs and vaccines have not been developed. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

Are migratory birds responsible for the spread of bird flu? Should we kill them all? By Science in School, promoting inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, and everyone else involved in European science education.

Dengue fever is a serious disease, which is transmitted from a certain type of mosquito. By Actionbioscience.org, a non-commercial, educational web site created to promote bioscience literacy.

In the United States, some ticks carry pathogens (an agent especially a virus or bacterium or other microorganism) that can cause human or animal disease. By The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.

Vaccines and therapies for infectious diseases have saved many lives. Control of many infectious diseases has been one of medicine’s greatest accomplishments. By The Science Learning Hub, a national project designed to support the effective teaching of science in New Zealand schools.