Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Whether it's the ocean's deepest hydrothermal vents or tall mountain peaks, bacteria is likely surviving and thriving. Ice caves can host a wide variety of microorganisms and offer biologists a bevy of genetic diversity that still has to be studied. And it could help save lives. A team of scientists in Romania tested antibiotic resistance profiles with a bacterial strain that was hidden in a 5,000-year-old layer of ice inside an underground ice cave.

César de la Fuente is on a mission to combat antimicrobial resistance by looking at nature's own solutions. César de la Fuente is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads the Machine Biology Group. When he was just a teenager trying to decide what to do with his life, César de la Fuente compiled a list of the world's biggest problems. He ranked them inversely by how much money governments were spending to solve them. Antimicrobial resistance topped the list. Twenty years on, the problem has not gone away.

Virtually every aspect of your health can be traced back to your microbiome. But some tests are better than others. Some of the recipes look tasty. I admit it: I'm a sucker for metrics. Fitness trackers that keep tabs on my steps and sleep? A DEXA scan to give me too much information about my body composition?

You still need to wash your hands with soap and warm water though. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. The most dreaded time of year rolls around every winter like clockwork: cold and flu season. The time when hand washing increases, sanitizing surfaces intensifies, and old and young schedule regular seasonal vaccines in an attempt to prevent sickness from descending on their households. But there's one piece of ammunition you should absolutely skip this season--and all year-round--because it does more harm than good: antibacterial hand soap.

The potential for rapidly-evolving frontier artificial intelligence (AI) models, especially large language models (LLMs), to facilitate bioterrorism or access to biological weapons has generated significant policy, academic, and public concern. Both model developers and policymakers seek to quantify and mitigate any risk, with an important element of such efforts being the development of model benchmarks that can assess the biosecurity risk posed by a particular model. This paper, the second in a series of three, describes the second component of a novel Biothreat Benchmark Generation (BBG) framework: the generation of the Bacterial Biothreat Benchmark (B3) dataset. The development process involved three complementary approaches: 1) web-based prompt generation, 2) red teaming, and 3) mining existing benchmark corpora, to generate over 7,000 potential benchmarks linked to the Task-Query Architecture that was developed during the first component of the project. A process of de-duplication, followed by an assessment of uplift diagnosticity, and general quality control measures, reduced the candidates to a set of 1,010 final benchmarks. This procedure ensured that these benchmarks are a) diagnostic in terms of providing uplift; b) directly relevant to biosecurity threats; and c) are aligned with a larger biosecurity architecture permitting nuanced analysis at different levels of analysis.

Environment Animals Pets Dogs Pet dogs can help teens' mental health Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. It's old news that having a dog provides a lot of benefits. Playing with a pooch can help our brains concentrate and relax, a family dog can help prevent food allergies in children, and even fulfill our primal need to nurture. They also may have some sway over some of the tiniest organisms around--the microbes that live in our bodies. A study published December 3 in the journal found that the family dog prompts changes in our gut microbiome that result in better mental health.

Centuries-old genetic material can solve historical mysteries, from lost species to what killed Napoleon's army. A glowing, digital double helix represents the billions of base pairs scientists analyze when sequencing ancient DNA. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In 1976, workers excavating a tunnel for the Toronto subway system came across some very old bones. Using radiocarbon dating, researchers determined the partial cranium and fragments of antlers were roughly 12,000 years old.

The UK is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle the rising numbers of infections that have become resistant to treatment. The project - a collaboration between the Fleming Initiative and the pharmaceutical company GSK - is a battle between superbugs and supercomputers. It aims to speed up the discovery of fresh antibiotics and deliver new ways of killing other threats, including deadly fungal infections. Overusing antibiotics drives bacteria to evolve resistance to infections, which means new drugs are a priority. Drug-resistant infections are a growing problem - one known as the silent pandemic.

The cephalopod's disappearing act could help your next sunscreen blend in. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Cephalopods like octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish have the mesmerizing ability to change the color of their skin to camouflage into the surrounding environment. Multiple biological processes involving a natural pigment called xanthommatin drives this unique ability. As such, various industries are interested in using xanthommatin in products such as paint and natural sunscreen, but the pigment has been hard to research.

Health Medicine Stinky'rotten egg' gas could fight nail infections Don't worry, scientists are working on the odor. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. If you have ever let a container of hardboiled eggs spoil or visited a volcano that is spewing lava and gas, you've likely taken a whiff of hydrogen sulfide. This colorless and flammable gas has a uniquely unpleasant rotten egg smell. However that nasty smell (and the gas it belongs to) could have a new use treating pesky infections.