Bacterium

EASTON -- An outbreak of avian cholera that has killed hundreds of sea ducks in the Chesapeake Bay this week could destroy tens of thousands of birds before it runs its course, state waterfowl experts said yesterday.The highly contagious disease is lethal to waterfowl, capable of killing them six to 12 hours after exposure, but it is not considered to be a high-risk malady for people.Teams of state Department of Natural Resources workers are combing the Chesapeake shoreline to collect contaminated duck carcasses in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease to other migratory birds.

EASTON -- An outbreak of avian cholera that has killed hundreds of sea ducks in the Chesapeake Bay this week could destroy tens of thousands of birds before it runs its course, state waterfowl experts said yesterday.The highly contagious disease is lethal to waterfowl, capable of killing them six to 12 hours after exposure, but it is not considered to be a high-risk malady for people.Teams of state Department of Natural Resources workers are combing the Chesapeake shoreline to collect contaminated duck carcasses in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease to other migratory birds.

Flouting the scientific canon that all bacteria are microscopic, researchers have discovered a strain so huge that it can be seen with the naked eye.The single-celled organism, plucked from the bowels of an Australian fish, is about the size of a hyphen in a newspaper, making it by far the largest bacterium ever detected.In measuring more than one-fiftieth of an inch in length and possessing a volume a million times that of the common E. coli microbe, the newly discovered bacterium seems to defy laws of biology that limit how big a simple bacterial cell can grow.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- In the beginning, Lonnie Ingram's objective was to get to the bottom of the way bacteria make alcohol -- particularly in tequila.In the end, the University of Florida microbiologist wound up discovering something with potentially profound economic and environmental implications.Mr. Ingram took two genes from one strain of bacteria, transferred them into another and came up with a hybrid microbe he affectionately calls his "superbug."It is an apt name. Mr. Ingram's superbug, it turns out, is a ravenous bacterium that has the ability to produce ethanol from nearly any kind of plant material: corn stalks, corn cobs, sawdust, grass clippings, old newspapers and even the sludge generated by paper mills.

WASHINGTON -- Scientists are closing in on cholera, the age-old scourge that reappeared this year in the Western world after a century's absence.Hooking proteins together and taking them apart like molecular Tinkertoys, the scientists are assembling an intricate explanation the debilitating and sometimes fatal diarrhea caused by the cholera bacterium.Microbiologists recently announced they had come up with an atom-by-atom description of a toxin produced by the bacterium. Many believe that knowing how this molecule -- described as a "poisoned doughnut" -- works will make it possible to develop the first effective vaccine against the disease.

For the first time, scientists have found strong evidence that some types of cancer may be caused by bacteria.Stanford University researchers reported in today's edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that virtually all their patients with the most common type of stomach cancer are infected with a bacterium that has previously been linked to inflammation of the stomach and ulcers -- strong evidence that the infectious agent plays a role...