Bacteria

Jamie Lee Curtis promises in TV adds that bacteria-laced Dannon yogurt will improve colon regularity. Other companies sell little pills full of living microbes and even supplements promising to feed those microbes what they most like to eat. Probiotics and prebiotics — from bacteria-infused beverages to microbe-filled chocolates — are gaining in popularity, even as some scientific studies find they don't always live up to their claims....

What spreads almost as fast as necrotizing fasciitis, a.k.a. flesh-eating infection? News stories about it. Surely by now you've heard about the horrifying case of Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old Georgia graduate student who cut her leg on May 1 and was on life support by May 4. When Copeland regained consciousness, much of the plugged-in world knew what she still did not: Her left leg had been amputated, skin on her abdomen had been removed and...

Bacteria in the intestines can modify the body's chemistry to alter the amount of food that becomes stored as fat, according to a finding in mice reported this week that could help in controlling obesity. A team from the Washington University School of Medicine in St.

No place on Earth demonstrates the resilience or inventiveness of life quite like Lechuguilla Cave, whose subterranean tunnels stretch for 130 miles through Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. Deep in the cave's most arid recesses, deprived of all sunlight and mostly starved of life-giving water, a lush garden of bacteria grows. Untouched by humans for all of their 4 million years, these strains of bacteria thrive on the harsh minerals of the geological formations to which they cling and fend off other life forms that would prey on them.

Cavities are more complex than we thought. Sugar is still the leading culprit — and genetics, diet, immunity, susceptibility, oral hygiene and fluoride exposure play roles — but a large and growing body of research suggests that oral decay is also an infectious disease. Numerous studies have found that cavity-causing bacteria can be passed from primary caregivers to infants and toddlers during a period in which the children's immune systems are not fully developed — putting young children at a higher risk of cavities.

Something in your gut could be making you fat — and it isn't just last night's pizza. The vast, diverse community of microbes inhabiting the intestines, scientists are finding, can influence metabolism and weight. Between 10 trillion and 100 trillion microbes, mainly bacteria, dwell in a person's colon and small intestine. They function together almost like another of the body's organs, influencing, among other things, how many calories we extract from our food and whether we make or burn fat. Researchers have discovered significant links between gut bacteria and weight and metabolism in mice — and are starting to find similar associations in people.

Squirting the sugar substitute xylitol on infants' teeth could help prevent the tooth decay that afflicts an estimated 28% of U.S. children ages 2 to 5, according to a new study. Severe tooth decay occurs when bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans proliferate in the mouth and attack enamel. Largely preventable, it strikes poor children twice as often as wealthier ones. The problem is compounded because decay is more likely to go untreated in poorer communities.

A high-fat, high-sugar diet does more than pump calories into your body. It also alters the composition of bacteria in your intestines, making it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it, research in mice suggests. And the changeover can happen in as little as 24 hours, according to a report Wednesday in the new journal Science Translational Medicine. Many factors play a role in the propensity to gain weight, including genetics, physical activity and the environment, as well as food choices.

On Sept. 9, 1965, I was lucky enough to watch the perfect game Sandy Koufax pitched at Dodger Stadium. Some say this was the greatest baseball game ever played — the most perfect of perfect games. Koufax pulled it off with the most strikeouts of any perfect game (14), and with the least run support. The victorious Dodgers scored their lone run without a hit, and most of the game looked to be a freakish double no-hitter, as the Cubs' Bob Hendley also pitched the game of his career. For all of us watching that day, including my Little League teammates and our fathers, we came as close as we're likely to get to seeing perfection unfold.

A malfunctioning cleaning system in a Los Angeles milk production plant probably accelerated bacterial growth in a tank of nonfat milk, state officials said Friday, which caused about 100 people to fall ill and led to the voluntary recall of the milk. Officials of Vons Companies Inc., however, said there was no connection between the cleaning system and the spoiled milk.

The allure of getting fabulously rich as suddenly as being hit by lightning is a time-honored fantasy. Sadly, the chance of getting killed by that lightning is far more likely than getting rich by winning the world's largest lottery. As of Friday morning, the jackpot in the Mega Millions lottery had hit a record $640 million, sending players in 42 states and the District of Columbia to beat a hasty path to the nearest kiosk, sundry outlet or grocery store to plunk down a buck - or many - to purchase a lottery ticket - or many.

It took three years and more than $26 million to turn an old MTA bus yard in South Los Angeles into what it is today: a sprawling park and urban wetland that will store and clean millions of gallons of storm water — while also giving children a place to play. The gates to the new park, built on nine acres at Avalon Boulevard and 54th Street, were opened to the public Thursday. Residents say it is a welcome addition to a neighborhood that is sorely in need of green space. City officials say decades of lax zoning practices have left many of the area's residential streets blighted with warehouses, mechanic shops and scrap yards.

Human tears are thought to be unique in the animal kingdom, in that they're often tied to our emotional state -- but that's not the only special property they possess. Proteins in tears can protect against harmful bacteria, and now a team of UC Irvine researchers has shown how. Lysozymes are antiseptic proteins found in a number of bodily fluids, including tears. Their anti-bacterial properties were first identified by Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, in the 1920s, but it was unclear how these proteins could take out bacteria much bigger than them.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricted the routine use of a class of antibiotics known as cephalosporins in livestock, it picked an easy target. The agency's move is better than nothing, but nonetheless it is a reminder of the FDA's achingly slow and timid efforts to wean agriculture off the overuse of important medications. Call it a tiptoe forward after a recent giant step in the other direction and a long era of standing in one place. Eighty percent of the antibiotics used in this country are given to chicken, pigs, turkey and cattle, not because the animals are sick but to fatten them and prevent illness from sweeping through crowded pens.

The geography and water circulation patterns of the northern Gulf of Mexico promoted the breakdown of oil and gas spewing from a busted wellhead during the BP oil disaster, according to a new study. Using computer models and Navy data on gulf currents, the authors concluded that rather than moving away from the deep-sea wellhead in a linear fashion, oil-laced water often looped back, returning hydrocarbon-munching bacterial blooms to the rising oil plume for repeated feasts. "That northern portion of the gulf is almost enclosed on three sides," said lead author David Valentine, a UC Santa Barbara professor of microbial geochemistry.

Germs that reside on doctors' lab coats, nurses' uniforms and hospital bed curtains are known to contribute to an unacceptably high rate of hospital-acquired infections. And that's just for starters. It turns out that papers passed around hospital offices, labs and patient rooms are potent transmitters of germs too. The fact that paper can carry bacteria is not a surprise. Other studies have demonstrated how filthy paper money is. The new study , however, makes clear that hospitals need to treat paper-transmitted bacteria seriously because the germs transfer from hand to paper so easily.

We already blame bacteria for spoiling our food, damaging our gardens, and causing all sorts of infections and illnesses and make us squirm and sneeze. Now, scientists say, we may be able to add bad weather to the list of the once-celled organisms' troublesome deeds, too. According to research presented this week at the meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in New Orleans, scientists at Montana State University in Bozeman have discovered large concentrations of bacteria at the core of hailstones -- a finding that suggests that bacteria or other airborne microorganisms have a role in the stones' formation.

The musical instruments kids play in school bands and orchestras are traveling denizens of bacteria and fungi, say the authors of a new study. Music education is great for kids, they note, but please, please wash the instruments! Researchers at Oklahoma State University bravely examined 13 instruments that belonged to a high school band. Six of the instruments had been played the previous week and seven hadn't been played in a month. Swabs were taken of 117 different sites on the instruments, including the mouthpieces, internal chambers and even the carrying cases.

We all know public bathrooms are lousy with bacteria, but what kind are they, and how did they get there? A study released Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE uses gene sequencing to find out exactly what germs lurk in public restrooms and where they came from. And after reading this, you are definitely going to want to wash your hands. A few times. Researchers used high-throughput genetic sequencing to detect bacteria on 10 different surfaces in 12 men's and women's bathrooms on a college campus.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified why whole cantaloupes sold by Colorado grower Jensen Farms became contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes : "poor sanitary" practices in a packing facility. The FDA said it conducted an environmental assessment at Jensen Farms on Sept. 22-23, and inspectors found that bacteria may have originated in cantaloupe fields or on a truck parked near the packing facility. The bacteria then probably proliferated in the packing facility, where pooled water near equipment and walkways and might have promoted growth, the agency said.