Structure of epilson15 bacteriophage, a virus that infects Salmonella. One end of the DNA genome (blue) is poised for injection into a host cell. Credits : Wah ChiuFifty years after MIT researchers pioneered the use of electron microscopy to study viruses, MIT scientists have helped produce the most detailed images yet of the tiny infectious agents.

An exotic type of crab is spreading at an alarming rate throughout Britain's coast and rivers, a new study suggests.

A new study from Imperial College London shows that robot assisted knee surgery is significantly more accurate than conventional surgery.

The next time you mutter about the high cost of relationship maintenance, take comfort in knowing that microbes share your pain. In the first study to examine the cost of sexuality in microbes, Jianping Xu, associate professor of biology at McMaster University, found that sex exacts physical, morphological and behavioural stress on microbes. His findings are published in the recent edition of Genetics, published by the Genetics Society of America.

Researchers have identified a key component of the mechanism spermatozoa use to abruptly convert their tail motion from a steady swimming undulation to the whip-cracking snap that thrusts them into an egg. The finding opens a new research pathway that the researchers said could help scientists both recognize new forms of male infertility and design new contraceptives to thwart sperm entry into the egg.

Working in cooperation with Maine trawler captain Cameron McLellan and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, UMaine graduate student Emily Knight and UMaine Marine Science professor Les Watling recently completed a long-term study that examines the effects of groundfish trawling on the complex ecology of the sea floor in the Gulf of Maine.

The cellular "pumps" associated with multi-drug resistance in bacteria may also be involved in exporting signals responsible for cell-cell communication, a process known as quorum sensing, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Even though treatment for cholesterol disorders can reduce the risk of heart and blood vessel disease by about 30 percent over five years, many at-risk people aren't getting adequate treatment, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues reporting in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

A protein that binds to bile in the small intestine may hold the key to preventing infection and intestinal breakdown in people with conditions such as obstructive jaundice or irritable bowel syndrome, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.