Texas environmental regulators will consider lowering the standard for E. coli bacteria in recreational waters, a move that increases the risk to public health.

The governor-appointed, rule-making body of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will meet Wednesday. Its staff and scientists recommend the standards be loosened.

However, environmental groups warn that would put the public at risk. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t lowered its standards.

TCEQ aquatic scientist Jim Davenport says loosening the standards slightly would increase the risk of stomach illness. However, he says it’s necessary to allow the state to focus more on heavily polluted bodies of water.

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Researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard and Harvard Medical School have developed a method to produce sugar from photosynthetic bacteria.

The innovation could reduce the carbon dioxide emissions associated with transporting sugar globally from producing countries; lead to greater availability of biodegradable plastics; and allow capture of harmful CO2 emissions from power plants and industrial facilities.

Moreover, the technology offers potential economic advantages.

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and five other government officials have contracted the A(H1N1) virus, also known as swine flu, the ministry of health said.

Minister of Health, Mam Bunheng, said on Tuesday that the prime minister has received treatment and is recovering. Mam Bunheng said the six were likely exposed to the virus at the weekly cabinet meeting on last Friday. Among the other officials infected are Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly and two senior ministers.

Hun Sen’s illness caused him to miss the 59th anniversary celebration of the founding of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which took place Monday in Phnom Penh.

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The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, is based on an analysis of more than 100,000 genetic snippets of a virus known as SIV, or simian immunodeficiency virus, which infects monkeys and is a close cousin of HIV.

Lead investigator Ha Youn Lee, the assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, said: “Viral escape is a significant phenomenon in HIV – it’s what allows HIV to elude the immune system. The dynamics in the earliest stage of infection by HIV are incredibly complex, and understanding what happens is crucial for developing a vaccine.

” Lee’s team analysed the genetic features of three key sections of the SIV genome as they changed during the first few months of infection in eight macaque monkeys, part of an effort to quantify how quickly the process of viral escape occurs. But the most striking finding is that the original viral genetic sequences are still present in the body months after the initial infection, at a time that scientists call the ‘viral set point,’ which occurs about two to five months after infection.

It’s a signal of just how difficult it is for the body to eradicate HIV from the body – key portions of the virus have managed to survive despite the immense immune assault.

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Sean Powers, a marine scientist at the University of South Alabama in Mobile and Dauphin Island Sea Lab on Dauphin Island, Alabama, tracks sargassum spread out across the gulf by airplane. He studies how reducing the size of algae mats in a specific area, which can occur for reasons including exposure to pollutants and changes in temperature, affects the surrounding marine life. Now Powers has received a National Science Foundation RAPID grant to study how sargassum fares in oiled waters.

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Corals are in fact a combination of animal, algae and “rock”. Colonies are made up of many identical individuals called polyps that secrete a stony skeleton. Polyps contain microscopic algae called zooxanthellae living within the coral animal tissue; the relationship is mutually beneficial, or symbiotic. Zooxanthellae use sunlight to provide energy and nutrients for the coral through photosynthesis, in return they are provided with shelter. In a reef, each colony acts as a building block, pieced together to form intricate structures that provide habitats for an abundance of reef fish and many other creatures.

Sea temperatures are at an all-time high. Major bleaching incidents are increasingly prevalent. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed that 2010 has been the hottest year in recorded history. Prior to this, 1998 was the hottest for 130 years, leading to unprecedented intense bleaching and coral mortality worldwide which wiped out more than 90 per cent of shallow water corals in the Indian Ocean. NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch monitors and predicts bleaching events using HotSpots, a measure which highlights areas where sea surface temperatures rise above levels that can lead to bleaching.

As predicted by NOAA, bleaching began this February in Mauritius and it has progressed throughout the Indian Ocean and South East Asia, including reefs off Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Philippines. Florida and the Caribbean are next, with strong warming of the surrounding sea and severe bleaching expected for the coming months.

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The Gram stain, developed by Christian Gram in the 1800’s, was the first differential staining technique in use and is still an important tool for distinguishing between two main types of bacteria—Gram-positive and Gram-negative.

Acid-fast staining, also known as the Ziehl Neelsen stain, is used to identify specialized bacteria that have waxy mycolic acid in their cell wall. The presence of mycolic acid in bacteria is rare, only found in two genera—Mycobacteria and Nocardia. The bacteria that possess mycolic acid are considered “acid fast,” whereas the vast majority of bacteria, those that do not have cell walls containing mycolic acid, are considered “non-acid fast.”

The endospore stain is used to identify bacterial cells that can produce endospores—small, dormant structures akin to “bacteria seeds.” Forming endospores is very advantageous to the bacteria that can perform this nifty trick, mainly the taxonomic classes Bacilli and Clostridia. Endospores allow for survival under difficult environmental circumstances, including dessication, starvation, high heat, and exposure to chemicals and radiation.

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MRSA skin infections often manifest as a raised bump with a lesion at the center, a wound that can look very much like a spider bite. These infections are actually referred to as “false spider bites” in the medial literature. But spider bites do not cause MRSA infections any more than MRSA infections cause spider bites. Yet, most patients who see their physician with a soft-tissue infection testing positive for MRSA originally attribute their wound to spider bite.

The most sensible course of action in dealing with a possible spider bite, particularly when no spider was caught in the act, is to see a health care provider and rule out the possibility that the wound is the result of a MRSA infection. When in doubt, get it checked out!

Here is an interesting article about Pouring Agar to Create Sterile Plates

Agar is often ultimately poured into sterile Petri dishes (plates). If aseptic technique is not used, bacteria from the environment will be introduced to the media, and the media will become contaminated and useless.

Before pouring the agar, make sure that everything is properly set up. The Bunsen burner should be hooked up to the gas supply, matches handy, and the sterile Petri dishes positioned close to the Bunsen burner. The farther the Petri dishes are from the burner, the more opportunity there will be for contamination to occur while pouring the plates… Read more