More Features
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FeaturesTracking the invisible: monitoring microbial processes in freshwater ecosystems using fluorescence sensing
Rivers are dynamic ecosystems driven by microbial processes that regulate carbon and nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and oxygen consumption. Despite their central role in river health, microbial processes remain mostly invisible in routine water quality monitoring programmes, which continue to focus primarily on physicochemical parameters.
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Long ReadsHow indigenous microbes could rescue the Niger Delta
Benzene contamination from decades of oil exploitation has turned the Niger Delta’s groundwater into a slow-acting poison for millions of people. Yet the solution may already be living in the contaminated sediment itself, if only the political will exists to deploy it.
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FeaturesEarth’s “little Marses”: how extremophiles are shaping astrobiology
There are places on our planet where the environmental conditions closely resemble those on Mars. These terrestrial analogues have become natural laboratories where scientists study the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
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FeaturesCan monolaurin help fight superbugs?
Among the many naturally occurring antimicrobial compounds, glycerol monolaurate (GML), more commonly known as monolaurin, has attracted renewed interest because of its broad antimicrobial activity and potential role in addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
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FeaturesA century of colicin: how a problem became the cure
Since the dawn of time, bacteria have evolved sophisticated ways to wage war against one another. Among the most fascinating of these natural weapons are colicins — protein toxins produced by certain strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) to eliminate competing bacteria. This article examines how these remarkable molecules were ...
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FeaturesThe living wooden cellar: microbiota of high-elevation artisanal cider in Slovenia
In the subalpine region of Carinthia, in northern Slovenia, cider is produced on remote family farms at altitudes of 500 to 860 metres - above the range in which the country’s vineyards operate. Here, cider-making is not a specialty product but a long-standing regional practice, historically shaped by a climate unsuited to winegrowing.
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FeaturesHow globalisation is reshaping traditional diets, our food culture, and gut microbiome
Globalisation has transformed not only the way we trade, travel and eat, but also the microbes that live with us. As food systems become increasingly interconnected, traditional diets that have shaped human gut microbiomes for generations are increasingly being replaced by a globalised food culture dominated by ultra-processed foods.
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FeaturesAdvancing animal disease outbreak management in support of a One Health approach
Animal health is often overlooked, with global expenditure reaching just a fraction (around 0.4 percent) of total human health spending, yet it is a crucial component of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) One Health approach. The One Health initiative highlights the commonalities between human, animal and environmental health and aims ...
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FeaturesSoil microbes and the hidden network connecting plants, animals, and humans
Coevolution has shaped Earth’s ecosystems for over a billion years. However, climate change and unprecedented anthropogenic activities have placed immense pressure on the soil ecosystem over the past few decades.
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FeaturesAzotobacter: a microbial route to green and sustainable ammonia
Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals in modern society. It plays a central role in global food production as the key ingredient in fertilizers that sustain nearly half of the world’s population. Beyond agriculture, ammonia has recently attracted growing attention as a potential carbon-free energy carrier and hydrogen ...
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FeaturesMeasuring and controlling an air fryer’s internal temperature for polymerase chain reaction
Read the second part in the journey to running PCR in an air fryer…
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Long ReadsLosing the Earth’s bounty
Farmland degradation and soil erosion have caused food shortages and the collapse of civilizations throughout human history. Today, soil degradation is a growing driver of global threats such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity. Loss of soil, the resource that supports production of 95% of the food supply, ...
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FeaturesBottling the extremes: culturing the hidden microbiomes of caves and deserts
Imagine an environment so extreme that most life cannot survive: a pitch-dark cave deep beneath the mountains of Northern Spain, or a hyper-arid desert in Chile where rainfall is virtually non-existent. These are not lifeless wastelands. Beneath cave walls and within the dusty top layer of desert soils, thriving communities of cyanobacteria, green algae, and fungi quietly engineer their ecosystems: fixing carbon, weathering rock, and cycling nutrients in conditions that would defeat most organisms on Earth.
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FeaturesEquity and the response to Covid 19 - Preparing for the next pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand
Aotearoa New Zealand enacted an effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government approach to the first few cases in March 2020 was to implement a swift ‘go hard and go early’ response. Borders were closed to non-residents, lockdowns were enforced, and infection was effectively eliminated within 76 days of ...
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FeaturesClinical considerations for the next pandemic: challenges facing Japan and strategic preparedness
Multiple global pandemics over the past century – the Spanish influenza (1918), Asian influenza (1957), Hong Kong influenza (1968), H1N1 influenza (2009), and COVID‑19 (since 2019) – have increasingly underscored the necessity for healthcare systems worldwide to be resilient, rapidly responsive, and forward‑facing.
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FeaturesClear but not clean: the hidden life of drinking water in Nigeria
In many communities across Nigeria, clear water is assumed to be safe. Transparency, both literal and visual, has become shorthand for purity. My recent research in Ede, southwestern Nigeria, began with a simple but uncomfortable question: what are people actually drinking?
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FeaturesCan we make a vaccine against the next Disease X in 100 days?
The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the deadliest events in modern history. Estimated to have killed over 25 million people worldwide and caused trillions of dollars in economic damage, the devastation caused by this virus was both astronomical and unforgettable.
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FeaturesA journey to run a polymerase chain reaction in the kitchen
Did you know an air fryer can thermocycle?
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Long ReadsRethinking Blastocystis: a One Health perspective on a common and controversial gut protist worth our attention
Here’s the reality: a stool report that reads “Blastocystis detected” still provokes strong reactions. Some clinicians worry and reach for antibiotics. Some laboratories add a note about “uncertain significance.” Patients search online and find polarised claims ranging from harmless commensal to stealth pathogen. The truth is more nuanced and more ...
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FeaturesThe world’s fermented foods in health and history
The use of microbes in food fermentation dates back thousands of years; archaeological evidence suggests that fermented beverages such as rice wine were produced in China as early as 7000 BC, while bread and beer were staples in ancient Egypt.