Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Ball One

Hard to know where to start with these. I've been shopping something around for about a month now that seems destined to die aborning, but in the interest of optimism I'll save it for later. Meanwhile, here's something from the archives--April 2009--that never saw daylight:

Monsters vs Aliens meet Bacteria vs Fungi.

Researchers have found that adding certain bacteria to the skins of frogs can protect the animals against a deadly fungal infection that has been ravaging amphibian populations in the wild.

Biologists at James Madison University say the bacteria Janthinobacterium lividum produce a substance called violacein that neutralizes the fungus causing the lethal infections. The scientists say the findings support the strategy of “bioaugmentation”—using microbes to beef up an organism’s natural defenses—in both wild and captive amphibians.

The researchers published their study in the iSME Journal's online edition ....

No luck with the major science magazines or websites.

2 comments:

  1. reminds me of the piece in the paper today that draws a link between the rise in HIV infection and the tapering off of smallpox...

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