Word: bacterias
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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While studying chimpanzees in Tanzania 20 years ago, Professor of Anthropology Richard W. Wrangham discovered several plants, used medicinally by the animals. One such plant contains an oil that kills bacteria, fungi and parasitic worms. Another is an effective antibiotic, and a third induces labor or abortion...
...magazine. The study, carried out by investigative reporter Trudy Lieberman, found widespread contamination and mislabeling of seafood in retail fish shops and supermarkets in New York City and Chicago. Of the 113 random samples of fish purchased in both cities, 29% were spoiled and 44% were contaminated with fecal bacteria; 40% of the swordfish samples had an impermissible level of mercury...
...almost certainly originated nearly 3.5 billion years ago as a mechanism for repairing the DNA of bacteria. Because ancient earth was such a violent place, the genes of these unicellular organisms would have been frequently damaged by intense heat and ultraviolet radiation. "Conjugation" -- the intricate process in which one bacterium infuses genetic material into another -- provided an ingenious, if cumbersome, solution to this problem, although bacteria continued to rely on asexual reproduction to increase their numbers...
...mixing and matching of parental genes, they argue, provide organisms with a novel mechanism for generating genetically different offspring, thereby increasing the odds that their progeny could exploit new niches in a changing environment and, by virtue of their diversity, have a better chance of surviving the assaults of bacteria and other tiny germs that rapidly evolve tricks for eluding their hosts' defenses...
...process of synthesizing antibiotics, enzymes within the bacteria act as the catalyst. The smaller molecules can accomplish the same task as the bulkier enzymes...