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Words matter. Images matter. The Scientific Inquirer needs your support. Help us pay our contributors for their hard work. Visit our Patreon page and discover ways that you can make a difference. http://bit.ly/2jjiagi Antimicrobial and antifungal resistance, which describe the ability of bacteria and other pathogens to resist the effects of drugs to which they were once sensitive, is a major public health problem worldwide. A study published recently in the journal Nature Communications [...]

With herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, insectivores, frugivores, scavengers and decomposers, Earth’s ecosystems function within a vast web of interactions among plants, animals, insects, fungi and microorganisms. A fundamental part of this web resides in the equilibrium of the food chain that links predators to herbivores and regulates plant production on our planet. Equilibria between predators and plant-feeding prey may be disrupted by future climate change, according to a study [...]

The mosquito Aedes aegypti is the main transmission vector of dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya in Brazil. It is highly adapted to urban environments and rarely found in forested areas. The mosquito Anopheles cruzii is the primary vector of Plasmodium, the protozoan parasite that causes malaria in humans. It mostly inhabits the countryside and is infrequent in urban areas. Mosquito population control is considered the best strategy for combating these diseases. Understanding mosquito [...]

Brazil’s Ministry of Health received reports of 11,524 outbreaks of foodborne diseases between 2000 and 2015, with 219,909 individuals falling sick and 167 dying from the diseases in question. Bacteria caused most outbreaks of such illnesses, including diarrhea and gastroenteritis. The most frequent were Salmonella spp., with 31,700 cases diagnosed in the period (14.4% of the total), Staphylococcus aureus (7.4%), and Escherichia coli (6.1%). According to a survey by the Ministry of Social [...]

Zika virus has been detected in dead monkeys found in Brazil near São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo State, and Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. The animals had been shot or beaten to death by locals who thought they had yellow fever. In fact, the monkeys were not bearers of that disease, but infection by Zika virus had made them sick and more vulnerable to attack by humans. “The discovery shows the potential exists for Zika to establish a sylvatic transmission cycle [involving wild animals] [...]

Earth is estimated to be home to between 10 million and 15 million eukaryotes – species of plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms with cells in which the chromosomal DNA is organized into a membrane-bound nucleus. Only 14% of these species (2.3 million) are known, and under 0.1% (15,000) have partially or completely sequenced genomes. Knowledge of this small fraction of Earth’s biodiversity has facilitated enormous advances in agriculture, medicine and biotechnology-based industries, [...]

A scientific study conducted at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, has identified genetic factors associated with the severity of acute viral bronchiolitis. The study was supported by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP. Its results were published in the journal Gene. Principal investigator for the study and a professor at UNICAMP’s Medical School (FCM-UNICAMP), José Dirceu Ribeiro recalls that bronchiolitis is the most common disease during the [...]

Microcephaly, brain calcification, skeletal alterations, auditory and visual deficits – these are examples of the damage that can be caused by Zika virus in babies born to mothers infected during pregnancy. However, these problems are observed in only 6%-12% of cases, and scientists suspect other factors besides viral infection are associated with the development of congenital Zika syndrome. A new study published on February 2 in the journal Nature Communications offers strong evidence [...]

Scientists from the Babraham Institute near Cambridge in collaboration with colleagues from Brazil (here and here) and Italy have discovered a way that good bacteria in the gut can control genes in our cells. The work, published today (9th January) in Nature Communications, shows that chemical messages from bacteria can change the location of key chemical markers throughout the human genome. By communicating in this way, the bacteria may help to fight infections and to prevent cancer. This [...]