Since their discovery by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, microorganisms have been found in almost every environment on earth. Microorganisms are capable of causing disease but are also used to make ...
Phosphorus is a chemical element found on Earth in numerous compound forms, such as the phosphate ion (PO43-), located in water, soil and sediments. The quantities of phosphorus in soil are ...
Your body has a two-line defence system against pathogens (germs) that make you sick. Pathogens include bacteria, viruses, toxins, parasites and fungi. The first line of defence (or outside ...
Like other organisms, bacteria use double-stranded DNA as their genetic material. However, bacteria organise their DNA differently to more complex organisms. Bacterial DNA – a circular chromosome ...
If the pathogens are able to get past the first line of defence, for example, through a cut in your skin, and an infection develops, the second line of defence becomes active. Through a sequence ...
Recent research has revealed that the large intestine and its resident bacterial population have key roles to play in determining our health and wellbeing. It is much more than just a waste ...
Bacteria range from the essential and useful, to the harmful. Essential bacteria Without the key functions of some bacteria, life on earth would be very different: Some bacteria degrade organic ...
Bacteria are commonly used as host cells for making copies of DNA in the lab because they are easy to grow in large numbers. Their cellular machinery naturally carries out DNA replication and ...
Proteins are the key working molecules and building blocks in all cells. They are produced in a similar two-step process in all organisms called protein synthesis – DNA is first transcribed into ...
Cheesemaking is the controlled process of removing water from milk. This process concentrates the milk’s protein, fat and other nutrients and increases its shelf life. Cheesemaking is one of the ...
We can’t see them. We can’t hear them or feel them, but they are with us. There are 10 trillion (10 x 1,000,000,000,000 or a million million) cells in the average body. For every cell, we have 10 ...
The bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli for short) is crucial in modern biotechnology. Scientists use it to store DNA sequences from other organisms, to produce proteins and to test protein ...
Silage is preserved pasture. Making silage is an important way for farmers to feed cows and sheep during times when pasture isn't good, such as the dry season. Find out how silage is made below ...
A bioindicator is a living organism that gives us an idea of the health of an ecosystem. Some organisms are very sensitive to pollution in their environment, so if pollutants are present, the ...
Using modern laboratory techniques, it is relatively easy to add pieces of foreign DNA to bacteria. To do this, scientists first package their DNA of interest within a circular DNA molecule (a ...
Cheese comes in numerous varieties of different styles, textures and flavours, but it’s all made from the same basic ingredient – milk. So what are the differences and how are they created ...
A virus is a very simple thing – a coat of protein wrapped around some genetic code (DNA or RNA). It’s not a cell and it’s not living. Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato ...
This interactive is a simple version of the human immune response to two different pathogens.
This interactive explains the different cells, microorganisms and molecules involved in the human immune system.
Find out how and why we use bacteria to improve our lives, and discover how the DNA revolution has led to new uses for bacteria. Making use of bacteria: then and now For millennia, we humans have ...
New Zealand has a wide variety of landscapes. A day’s sightseeing journey might include volcanic plateaus, rolling hills, river basins and coastal lands. It is easy to notice how the scenery ...
It doesn’t breathe, it doesn’t eat, it doesn’t excrete, and it doesn’t grow – so it can’t be alive, can it? It hijacks a living cell and uses it to produce so many copies of itself that it bursts ...
We all get sick from time to time. Wintertime, in particular, brings with it colds and flus. Rights: Image licensed through 123rf.com Sick child We all get sick from time to time and don’t feel ...
Bacteria can produce foreign proteins from introduced genes, using their own gene expression machinery. Producing proteins in bacteria has greatly simplified the study of how proteins work. It ...
