Boing Boing » microbes http://boingboing.net Brain candy for Happy Mutants Sat, 18 May 2013 03:00:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 Yeah for yeast http://boingboing.net/2013/04/15/yeah-for-yeast.html http://boingboing.net/2013/04/15/yeah-for-yeast.html#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:06:21 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker http://boingboing.net/?p=224376 voted unanimously to make Saccharomyces cerevisiae — brewer's yeast — the official State microbe. The bill now heads to the state Senate. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/04/15/yeah-for-yeast.html/feed 17 Scientists discover life in Antarctica http://boingboing.net/2013/02/11/scientists-discover-life-in-an.html http://boingboing.net/2013/02/11/scientists-discover-life-in-an.html#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:00:50 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker http://boingboing.net/?p=212327 There's some really exciting news coming from the land at the bottom of the world. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/02/11/scientists-discover-life-in-an.html/feed 9 Cat toys shaped like microbes http://boingboing.net/2012/12/12/cat-toys-shaped-like-microbes.html http://boingboing.net/2012/12/12/cat-toys-shaped-like-microbes.html#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:56:26 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker http://boingboing.net/?p=200015

Behold, a truly fantastic gift for the cat in your life — catnip-filled soft toys shaped like amoebas, cyanobacteria, and (pictured above) giardia.

Giardia are microscopic parasites that can invade the guts of vertebrate animals, including cats and humans. Generally, you get it by ingesting giardia-infested feces. For humans, this mostly means contaminated drinking water, because giardia are harder to kill than you might think. They can survive quite happily outside of a host and are resistant to chlorine.

Blue giardia cat toy

Read more on giardia (and see pictures) at the CDC website

]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/12/12/cat-toys-shaped-like-microbes.html/feed 4 Just wash your pants, people http://boingboing.net/2011/11/08/just-wash-your-pants-people.html http://boingboing.net/2011/11/08/just-wash-your-pants-people.html#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:07:33 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker http://boingboing.net/?p=128146 The idea is that freezing will kill the bacteria that make your pants smell. But Stephen Craig Cary, an expert in low-temperature microbial life, begs to differ. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/11/08/just-wash-your-pants-people.html/feed 47