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Why the International Olympic Committee is Worried About Water Quality in Rio
Viruses and bacteria may threaten swimmers in the 2016 summer games
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Brain-Eating Amoebas May Kill You With Help from Your Own Immune System
The amoeba’s presence in the brain triggers swelling that may do more harm than good
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Think Ocean Water is Gross? Sand Is Way Grosser
New research shows that microbes take longer to decay in sand than at sea
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Mosquitoes Can Carry, and Deliver, a Double Dose of Malaria
Insects that are already carrying one strain are more likely to pick up a second infection and harbor higher numbers of parasites
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What Makes Day Old Water Taste Funny?
It might be full of microbes and carbon dioxide, but a leftover glass of water is still (probably) safe to drink
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A Squirrel Virus May Have Killed Three Squirrel Breeders in Germany
A mysterious set of deaths seem to be linked to the rodents
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How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold
These underground tubes at Lava Beds National Monument include sparkling gold ceilings that even NASA wants to study
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In 1950, the U.S. Released a Bioweapon in San Francisco
This was one of hundreds of bioweapon simulations carried out in the 1950s and 1960s
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To Stop Mosquito Bites, Silence Your Skin’s Bacteria
Texas scientists tricked mosquitoes into skipping a blood meal by modifying the way bacteria talk to each other
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Maybe. But we need to learn a lot more about them before they hit pharmacy shelves
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The Mystery of the Failed Chlamydia Vaccine
In the 1960s, a vaccine for chlamydia made patients more susceptible to chlamydia. Now scientists know why
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11 Reasons to Love Bacteria, Fungi and Spores
From medicines to jet fuel, we have so many reasons to celebrate the microbes we live with every day
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Here’s What Happens When You Culture the Bacteria on an Eight-Year-Old’s Hand
Lots of cooties grow
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With This Self-Healing Concrete, Buildings Repair Themselves
A concrete developed by Dutch scientists and embedded with limestone-producing bacteria is ready to hit the market
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How Will Climate Change Impact Plankton?
A global plankton survey aims to help us understand how the tiny organisms that live at the ocean surface will fare in a warming world
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Engineered Yeast Could Open up a DIY Painkiller Market
The modified microbes could also make cheaper and better opiates
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Even an Isolated Amazonian Tribe’s Microbes Are Antibiotic Resistant
The finding of antibiotic resistance in people who have never taken antibiotics highlights how hard it will be to combat superbugs
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Scientists Predict Obesity Rates by Examining Sewage Microbes
The microbial makeup of a city’s sewage can indicate its population’s physique
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This Alien Color Catalog May Help Us Spot Life on Other Planets
A digital library of reflectance spectra from microbes could be a powerful tool for spotting signs of extraterrestrials
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New Drawings Show the Strange Beauty of Phages, the Bacteria Slayers
Phage viruses rearrange genes, prey on bacteria and maintain microbial diversity. Can we harness them to do our bidding?
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