e. coli

At CES, scientific-equipment giant Life Technologies unveiled a DNA sequencer designed to decode an entire human genome in a day for $1,000 by the end of 2012.

The Ion Proton Sequencer, priced at $149,000, isn't your typical hot commodity on the show floor. But the benchtop sequencer costs far less than its bulkier, slower predecessors (typically in the $500,000 to $750,000 range), and the $1,000 price tag--once costs fall to that level--could put personal gene sequencing directly into the hands of the masses.

"This is such an amazing moment in history," said … Read more

In 12 cities across England this past spring, researchers took almost 400 samples from cell phones and hands on the hunt for bacteria.

The researchers--from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London--found that 16 percent of both the phones and hands contained E. coli, a form of bacteria that inhabits our intestines and is typically spread through fecal matter.

At 400, the sample size is by no means large, but if those percentages are accurate, there is simply no getting around the conclusion: traces of our own poop and the resulting bacteria are hanging out on 1 in 6 of our phones and hands.… Read more

There hasn't been another major radioactive leak, but soon we could see flesh wounds glowing in the dark. Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. have developed a gel that glows under ultraviolet light when it comes in contact with many kinds of bacteria.

The gel also appears to be effective in fighting the bacteria at the same time.

"The polymers (in the gel) incorporate a fluorescent dye and are engineered to recognize and attach to bacteria, collapsing around them as they do so," Sheffield Professor Sheila MacNeil explains in a statement. "This change in polymer shape generates a fluorescent signal that we've been able to detect using a handheld UV lamp."

Project lead Dr. Steve Rimmer adds that the technology could help reduce the overuse of antibiotics. In testing, the gel has been able to detect the presence of serious bacterias including Salmonella, E. Coli, MRSA, and meningitis.… Read more

Chemists at Bar-Ilan University in Israel say they have developed and successfully tested "killer paper" coated with silver nanoparticles--each roughly 1/50,000 the width of a human hair--that can fight bacteria such as E. coli and S. aureus.

Described in the American Chemical Society journal Langmuir, researcher Aharon Gedanken tells me that while colloidal silver is already widely used as an antimicrobial agent, what's new about his team's research is the process by which silver nanoparticles are deposited onto paper to develop antimicrobial properties.

The team was able to control both the thickness of the … Read more

Purfresh, which used to go by the name Novazone, has tested and now will more actively market a sunscreen for things that come out of the ground.

Called Eclipse, it's a powder made from multicrystalline calcium carbonate. You spray it on onions and other crops to reduce solar stress. Farmers can lose 30 percent or more of their crops to overexposure to the sun, said Purfresh CEO David Cope. The remaining, salable crops can also get damaged and lose some of their value through overexposure. Spray on the powder--which is rated SPF 42--and you can eliminate losses due to … Read more

Between mad cows and agricultural imports from China, you don't have to be a germaphobe to be slightly paranoid about your food. And even though there are devices developed for such tasks as sensing bacteria in uncooked meat, we can't help but wonder how well these things work--and how much of a chance we're willing to take.

That's where the "CulinaryPrep" comes in, claiming not only to detect the bad stuff but also eradicate it from the food in question. Using something called the "Grovac Process," which the device's manufacturer says … Read more