Food poisoning doesn’t just come from dodgy kebabs, under-cooked chicken and restaurants with poor hygiene practices – it can also occur in the home. And anyone who has suffered a bout of food poisoning…
It doesn't really matter how long food is on the floor, it's likely to collect the same amount of bacteria.
Flickr/bark
As a food microbiologist, I have always been amazed at people’s belief in the three- or five-second rule. It goes something like this: if you retrieve food dropped on the floor or another surface within…
No matter how friendly your detergent is, it does damage.
NPS Photo/Neal Herbert
After the big wet, spare a thought for the health of your waterways and the substances that wash into them.
Bacteria are important to the health of the waterways running through our backyards. As decomposers…
Microbial fuel cells: a bit of mud or sewage, a few bacteria and, bingo: electricity.
engineering for change
When you read the word “bacteria” you probably think about illness, advertisements for “probiotic” food supplements, and maybe about brushing your teeth.
Chances are, you probably don’t think about electricity…
We may have pinpointed the event that started modern Y. pestis epidemics.
Steam Pirate.
Could contemporary plague outbreaks such as those that have hit Peru and the USA have their origins in the medieval era? It would seem so.
A paper published in Nature today reports a genome sequence taken…
Marsupials and monotremes could do the dirty on drug-resistant infections.
Lorinda Taylor/AAP
We know, because it’s big news, that drug-resistant infections are on the rise globally. But could Australian mammals hold the key to a fightback?
Our current crop of antibiotics is in danger of becoming…
Animals aren't to blame – the bacteria came from humans.
The genomes of the recent German E. coli outbreak have revealed crucial insights into the origins of this deadly strain. The bacteria was found in German bean sprouts but it didn’t originate from the gut…
The virulent E. coli is likely to have spread through contaminated vegetables.
E. coli is a common germ that has traditionally caused blood stream infections and urinary tract infections.
The virulent strain we’re seeing in Europe which has infected more than 1500 people and killed…
Radical approaches to drug discovery are required to combat superbugs.
Holmesgal/flickr
The rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, or “superbugs” is a critical global health issue. Paradoxically, while there is a compelling need for new antibiotics, their development has slowed…
We import more antibiotics to promote animal growth than treat people.
AAP
We depend on antibiotics to treat what previously were fatal conditions. But the more we use them, the more the bacteria they fight become resistant to all the weapons in our arsenal.
Bacterial resistance…
Viruses, parasites and bacteria have all developed resistance to current drugs.
AAP
The World Health Organisation’s World Health Day is dedicated to the threat posed by the rapid emergence of drug resistant organisms.
Viruses, parasites and bacteria have all developed some resistance…
Antibiotics that used to kill common bugs aren't always effective.
AAP
Antibiotics started out as the biggest medical breakthrough of the 20th century but overuse in humans and animals has led to resistance and reduced efficacy.
We’re now at risk of reverting back to a pre…
