Bacteria May Offer New Hope for Treating Skin Disorders

When the skin’s bacteria are in balance, protective strains guard against problem strains such as Staphylococcus aureus (yellow), which is associated with eczema and other disorders.

 Researchers Found Bacteria in the Human Brain

The brain was thought to be a sterile place. What are they doing there?

 Seeking an Obesity Cure, Researchers Turn to the Gut Microbiome

The link between the gut and metabolic disease is a growing area of obesity research.

 The human microbiome is a treasure trove waiting to be unlocked

Bacteria are at the centre of all life forms on planet earth and are the essential building blocks that make living organisms the way they are. Both the mitochondrion — found in most organisms, which generates energy in the cell — and the chloroplast — the solar energy-harvester located in plants — can be traced to their bacterial ancestors. These specialized microbes laid the foundation for the biodiversity we live amongst.

 The Millions Of Bacteria On Apples May Be A Key To Their Health Benefits

Everyone knows the adage about an apple a day, and like other old health axioms based on anecdotal evidence, modern research has basically shown it to be true. The numerous health benefits of apples are known to be due to various components within the apple—the fiber or the pectin, the vitamins, the polyphenols. But a new study in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology finds that apples also harbor a startling amount of bacteria—some 100 million organisms per apple. But far from being a health risk, these bacteria are likely a good part of the reason that apples are so healthy.

 Treating Disease by Nudging the Microbes Inside Us

We’ve spent centuries trying to kill bacteria. Now, scientists have shown that subtler approaches can work—at least in mice.

 Your skin is crawling with bacteria, and some of them might help fight cancer

Common microbes seem to help treat cancer—at least in mice.

Our bodies are mostly bacteria. A new book reveals this crucial, invisible world

You have a beautiful line: "...microbes are not the enemies of animals, but the foundations upon which our animal kingdom is built." It makes this co-evolution so clear — and also shows how much we’ve misperceived microbes for so long.

Bacteria or Virus? New Tests May Identify What’s Causing Your Infection

Research holds promise for treating respiratory illness and limiting overuse of antibiotics.

Big-Bucks Bacteria

Is there money to be found inside the human gut?

Breast Milk Is Teeming With Bacteria — That’s Good for the Baby

Breast-fed milk may nourish a baby’s microbiome in ways that bottled breast milk can’t.

Could Stress Turn Our Gut Bacteria Against Us? New Research Looks For Answers

Science continues finding evidence that the bacterial universe in our guts (the microbiome) affects our overall health, though big parts of the story still aren't clear.

Germs Are Us

The process of learning about our microbiome is in its early days, but even the most tentative results have begun to transform our understanding of human health.

Germs in Your Gut Are Talking to Your Brain. Scientists Want to Know What They’re Saying.

The body’s microbial community may influence the brain and behavior, perhaps even playing a role in dementia, autism and other disorders.

Gut Feeling: To Stay Healthy, Keep Your Body’s Microbes in Line

If ratio gets out of whack, the same organisms that ensure our well-being can make us sick.

How Eating Pussy Could Be Good for Your Health

Your vagina is full of the same probiotic bacteria that is packed into every health-conscious product from yogurt to kombucha. If the vagina is full of good bacteria, and people are eating as much good bacteria as they can, why not eat pussy?

If Your Smartphone Is Covered With Germs, So Is Your Doctor’s

Health care workers’ mobile devices could make patients sick.

Making Peace with Bacteria—for Good Health

In their efforts to find new approaches to fighting harmful bacteria without harming the microbiome, researchers are actively studying how our microbial populations protect us and how microbial imbalances cause disease.

Some of My Best Friends Are Germs

Compared to a rain forest or a prairie, the interior ecosystem is not well understood, but the core principles of ecology — which along with powerful new sequencing machines have opened this invisible frontier to science — are beginning to yield some preliminary answers and a great many more intriguing hypotheses.

Superbugs Are Everywhere

Experts have warned that we may be headed for a “post-antibiotic era” in which the drugs no longer work. The drugs have been a literal lifesaver for millions of people, contributing to a dramatic increase in lifespan in the past century.

We Are Our Bacteria

We may think of ourselves as just human, but we’re really a mass of microorganisms housed in a human shell. Every person alive is host to about 100 trillion bacterial cells. They outnumber human cells 10 to one and account for 99.9 percent of the unique genes in the body.

When Bad Bacteria and Good Bacteria Go to War

A study suggests new gut flora-based early warning systems for a potentially wide range of illnesses.