Having navigated Halloween and now facing Thanksgiving in the United States, and with the December holidays around the corner worldwide, the annual battle of tooth versus sugary treat has begun. Diligently toiling to repair the inevitable cavities is Stefan Habelitz, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco’s School of Dentistry. Habelitz has been studying the wondrous and often complicated production of tooth enamel, our first line of defense against tooth decay. Tooth enamel is as thick as a dime, highly-mineralized, and can withstand an immense amount of pressure (up ... Read More
More Reasons Not to Skip Your Broccoli
November 18, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Though the upcoming holidays signal mass poultry-cide in the name of family togetherness, recent findings in the journal Food & Function might very well change the way we gobble, with more green and less gravy. A University of Illinois study of rats has shown for the first time that sulforaphane, a cancer-fighting chemical compound in broccoli, can be harnessed by bacteria in our lower gut. Sulforaphane is a chemical compound released by vegetables like broccoli as a defense mechanism after damage has been done to the plant (like damage from chewing). It's responsible for the ... Read More
Power Poses Really Work
November 15, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
How strong is the power of suggestion? For researchers in the field of embodied cognition—the study of the mind as it relates to and influences the body—suggestion is a force to be reckoned with. Rooted in psychology, linguistics and neurobiology, embodied cognition has established links between movement and the mental state. A 2008 study published in Discover magazine, for example, found a tie between facial expressions and emotive perceptions. Our Tom Jacobs recently reported on a study from the Netherlands that found that upward motions elevated mood. New research ... Read More
Top Ten Bacteria Working in the Shadows
October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Childhood was a hazy mix of lace and mud — an age of cookie time, horseplay and the occasional cootie shot. It seems like a far cry from the fettered world of adulthood. But there were darker forces at play, infiltrators that showed up everywhere we were — near us, on us, in us. Some working for the forces of good, some for evil, some on both sides. These secret agents were bacteria. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that we adults have endowed bacteria with all our possessive and neurotic qualities. (See Valerie Brown's "Bacteria 'R' Us" in Miller-McCune magazine.) What were once ... Read More
Smelliot
October 20, 2010 • By •
"Hey, everybody! She's cool with 'Smelliot,'" chimes ne'er-do-well, John Dorian from TV's Scrubs. Everyone knows a Smelliot. Smelliot was the social outcast in grade school burdened by his parents with an unfortunate name and so, in retribution, assumed an arsenal of poor hygiene habits to stave off childhood teasing. Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium, Brevibacterium linens, is the Smelliot of the microbial world. Found in dairy products, fresh and salt water, soil, insects and decaying organic matter, Smelliot can be grown in a broad range of pH levels and salinity. Most know Smelliot ... Read More
Little L
October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
If the probiotic movement is a shiny discotheque, Lactobacillus, or Little L, would be the glamorous VIP whose celebrity moves velvet ropes. Lactobacillus is a gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium native to the mouth and digestive track and found in the production of yogurt, cheese, chocolate, pickles and other fermented foods. In the body, Little L converts lactose and other sugars to lactic acid, which inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria and aids in regulation and digestion. Lactic acid produced from Lactobacillus is also used in detergents as a soap-scum remover and antibacterial ... Read More
Vanilla Ice
October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Who hasn’t heard of Vanilla Ice? Adapting the rhythmic underpinnings of the Queen/David Bowie duet "Under Pressure," Mr. Ice created a snappy rap song destined for top 40 success, radio replay — and ultimately into the halls of pop-culture irony. Equipped with its own rat-like flagella, Pseudomonas syringae enters its era of underwhelming appreciation. This gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium, named after the lilac tree from which it was first isolated, inhabits plant surfaces as a pathogen. Vanilla Ice excretes a protein toxin that causes water to freeze at high temperatures — making ... Read More
The Vibrio Family
October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The world is cold, bitter place for the unfortunate few who have not seen Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy. Parodies don’t quite make sense; quotations from the film echo in lost cause; and the color orange carries little significance beyond its failure to rhyme with anything. For those who haven’t absorbed the tribulations of the Corleones, we offer a microbial placeholder: the Vibrio family. This gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium found in sea water carries both a sheathed flagella and a whopping reputation. First isolated from cholera patients, this highly pathogenic ... Read More
The Torpedo
October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Bell Biv DeVoe, R&B spin-off group from the early 1990s, hit it big with smash single, “Poison.” Chances are that while the group crooned “Girl, I must warn you,” it was unaware of the predatory microbe Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. This unique genus of gram-negative aerobic bacteria will invade and, in most cases, devour its prey entirely. (Gram-positive bacteria — named for the test that identified them — feature a thick cellular wall of protein and sugar compounds that helps store energy and provides structural strength.) Found in ocean and fresh water, sewage, soil and ... Read More
Slick Willy
October 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Ads for commercial cleansers portray bacteria as ominous globs lingering in the darkened corners of our homes. Yet some strains of bacteria actually aid in greening our environment. “Slick Willy,” or Pseudomonas putida, are gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that play a role in decomposition. Bioengineered by professor Ananda M. Chakrabarty in 1971, P. putida was the first patented organism in the world. Coveted for its diverse metabolism — including the ability to break down organic solvents like toluene, benzene and ethylbenzene — Pseudomonas is used in bioremediation, fuel ... Read More
