bacteria

The next time it's snowing and you open your mouth to catch snowflakes on your tongue, think about this: Scientists say they're full of bacteria. That's right. Bacteria are everywhere in the atmosphere, and a large number of them can even cause diseases in plants, according to scientists at Louisiana State University.

When snow and rain form in the sky, the moisture needs something to grab onto in order to condense. The scientists found that this something is bacteria. The group of scientists examined precipitation from various locations including France, Montana, and the Yukon. The bacteria were … Read more

Attention, parents of school-age children. Are you worried about a growing Purell addiction? CleanWell has the hand sanitizer for you.

The San Francisco-based company has come out with an alcohol-free, all-natural hand sanitizer. I got some samples at the ThinkGreen conference last week and my hands have been free of epidemic-causing bacteria ever since.

The company claims it kills Listeria monocytogenes, Candida (we can make it together) albicans, Streptococcus pygenes, and Salmonella enterica. You can't spray it on chicken, but the salmonella killing would be great for kitchen sanitizing. Spray CleanWell on your hands and it kills over 99 … Read more

Algae's not the only organism that can be used as a feedstock for biofuel.

BP will collaborate with Arizona State University to try to figure out a way of using cyanobacteria, a photosynthetic form of bacteria, as a feedstock for diesel or synthetic petroleum. Ideally, the bacteria could be cultivated in large, contained plots of land baked by the sun--Arizona has a lot of that. The bacteria also consume carbon dioxide to grow. Thus, carbon dioxide could be pumped in from a power plant into the contained bacteria farm. The company could thus make money from selling carbon credits … Read more

Sure, we have germ-killing handheld devices in various sizes. There's just one problem, as every germaphobe knows: They require you to get uncomfortably close to the potential contaminants at hand.

That's why we're so delighted to see products like this germ-eliminating vacuum cleaner, which uses a HEPA filter that catches the usual 99.97 percent of cooties as promised by most other gadgets of this kind. (We live in fear of encountering whatever's in that remaining 0.03 percent.)

Best of all, this upright machine with its telescoping wand and crevice nozzle allows us to do … Read more

It's just a guess, but something tells us that consumer gadgets promising to kill bacteria aren't quite strong enough for outer space. NASA apparently agrees, so it's developed its own microorganism detector to warn astronauts when alien bugs might be in the vicinity, according to Medgadget.

Technically named (of course) the "Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development?Portable Test System," it's a handheld device designed to detect bacteria or fungi on spacecraft surfaces far more quickly than standard culturing without the assistance of earth-bound labs, NASA says. This fall, an advanced prototype that can identify 130 microorganisms … Read more

Man-made supercomputers are fast. Photosynthetic bacteria are just as fast.

Arizona State University researchers have learned that, during photosynthesis, bacteria may realign crucial proteins very quickly. This allows the bacteria to capture nearly every photon of available light. How quickly? A millionth of a millionth of a second, about the same time it takes for a supercomputer to carry out a single flop. To make measurements in such tiny time scales, the scientists used an ultrafast laser facility.

Moving those proteins around rapidly allows the bacteria to capture most of the potential energy in their biological circuitry. Thus, photosynthesis can … Read more

It's been a banner week for germaphobes. Just the other day we pointed to a device that purifies water with UV rays, and now we get word of a product that filters out airborne germs from the air within its immediate vicinity.

The "Ionic USB Air Purifier," according to Fareastgizmos, "discharges negative ions to absorb second-hand smoke, odors, clean airborne dust, and eliminate bacteria, germs, viruses." The device circulates air silently without a fan and needs no filters. All you need, apparently, is faith.

Good news, fellow germaphobes. We've seen all manner of gadgets that sterilize surfaces but none that address what we ingest. Until now.

The "SteriPEN UV Light Water Purifier" treats H2O with a germicidal lamp, supposedly rendering it bacteria-free with no chemical aftertaste and "99.99 percent safe to drink," according to Mobile Magazine. With our luck, we'll probably be among the remaining 0.01 percent.