Recent Episodes
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Bacteria on the Rocks
As microbiologists, we're especially interested in microbial discoveries and a new one was found in an extreme environment, from deep within the oldest ice formation in the world. Scientists found the bacterium in Romania's Scarisoara ice cave which dates back 13,000 years. The new microbe, Psycrobacter SC-65-A.3, thrives in the cold and is resistant to salt. Scientists found it inside an 82-foot ice core. The deeper they drilled, the further back in time they went, going back 5,000 years.
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Dark Chocolate and the Aging Clock
If you love dark chocolate, keep your love affair because we just keep finding ways it's good for us. A new study uncovered a chemical called theobromine in dark chocolate that may slow biological aging. No, milk chocolate doesn't have it; your chocolate must contain at least 50 percent cacao solids.
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Cancer in the US
The American Cancer Society's newest report on cancer in the US shows cancer is the second leading cause of death. That may sound bad, but there's progress. Cancer is still a killer but during the past 10 years, cancer death rates began to fall about 1.5% percent every year.
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A Unique Knight
Among the remains of medieval Spanish knights at a castle just east of Madrid, scientists found a uniquely shaped skull. It was unusually narrow and long, measuring 9 inches long by four inches wide compared to a normal 5.5 by 5.5 inch skull.
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The War in Your Gut
Everyday a war is waged inside our guts, between the bacteria and the phage or viruses that want to kill them. They're each genetically evolving in a race to outdo the other both on earth and in space. We'll get to that in a minute.
