Recent News

By Region: North America

University of Toronto breakthrough allows fast, reliable pathogen identification

(EurekAlert) Life-threatening bacterial infections cause tens of thousands of deaths every year in North America. Increasingly, many infections are resistant to first-line antibiotics. Unfortunately, current methods of culturing bacteria in the lab can take days to report the specific source of the infection, and even longer to pinpoint the right antibiotic that will clear the  Read More »

You Say Potato, I Say Double-Stranded RNA

(ScientificAmerican) Amidst the outrage, puzzlement and theories caused by the finding of genetically-modified wheat in an Oregon field, USDA is considering whether to commercialize another dinnertime staple–the potato. Last month, Idaho-based J.M. Simplot asked the Agriculture Department to grant a deregulated status for a new variety of potatoes genetically engineered to reduce bruising and develop  Read More »

House Slashes Bioweapon Detection Funds, Citing Upgrade Delays

(GlobalSecurityNewswire) The U.S. House of Representatives last week rejected an $11.1 million funding boost requested by President Obama in the coming budget cycle for a federally operated network of biological-weapon agent sensors. Legislation approved by the chamber would instead provide $79.5 million for the Biowatch program in fiscal 2014, essentially holding spending at the level  Read More »

Alchemists Gone Bad: What You Should Know About Biological Warfare

(Discover) Spears. Bows and arrows. Swords. Guns. Bombs. Drones. Microbes. The evolution of weapons and forms of warfare shadows our technological advancements, from the field of metallurgy to that of microbiology. Biological warfare has existed for thousands of years: cheap and easy, it is often referred to as the “poor man’s nuclear bomb.” Few supplies  Read More »

Triple Threat: Middle East Respiratory Virus And 2 Bird Flus

(WBUR) The World Health Organization is warning health care workers everywhere to suspect a disease called Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, whenever they see a case of unexplained pneumonia. Monday’s warning comes at the end of a six-day WHO investigation in Saudi Arabia, where 40 of the 55 cases of the respiratory disease have  Read More »

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