Julian’s Bug Blog

    Discovery raises possibility of manufacturing painkillers more cheaply using vats of microbes rather than fields of flowers Ian Sample, Science Correspondent  The Guardian, Monday 15 March 2010   Scientists have identified the two genes in opium poppies which are used to make codeine and morphine, two of the most important painkillers in a [...]

Whiter laundry and a surprising new treatment for kids’ eczema Treatment of Staphylococcus aureusColonization in Atopic Dermatitis Decreases Disease Severity Science Centric | 27 April 2009 13:32 GMT It’s best known for whitening a load of laundry. But now simple household bleach has a surprising new role: an effective treatment for kids’ chronic eczema. Chronic, [...]

Scientists in B.C. are looking to tiny creatures to help find a better way to clean up pollution from some of the province’s biggest mining operations. The creatures are heavy-metal-eating microbes, and they’re being used to process the toxic byproducts produced over decades by the Teck Resources Limited zinc and lead mine in the city [...]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2010) — Fragments of plastic in the ocean are not just unsightly but potentially lethal to marine life. Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution to clean up plastic contamination, according to Jesse Harrison presenting his research at the Society for General Microbiology’s spring meeting in Edinburgh. The researchers from the University [...]