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Bacteria lady: She’s terrified of bacteria – and their greatest champion

Jessica Lönn-Stensrud was holding her new-born daughter in her arms when she heard that three infants had died in an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant intestinal bacteria at a maternity ward in Sweden. Fear hit her like a punch to the stomach. Ten years later, she has become the micro-organisms’ noble defender.

Faecal transplantation helped many with IBS

A new Norwegian study reports that many patients treated with faecal transplantation felt completely healthy after treatment. But everyone in the study were given bacteria from a single donor with a special gut flora. So what do the results mean for faecal transplantation in general?

Water containing ozone disinfects hands as well as hand sanitizer

Water that contained ozone removed bacteria from hands as well as an alcohol-based disinfectant.

Another tick-borne disease to worry about

Authorities don’t know how many Norwegians have been infected with the tick-borne disease anaplasmosis.

Indestructible bacteria threaten cancer patients

Cancer patients may die from infections as antibiotic-resistant bacteria continue to spread. The Norwegian Cancer Society is now fighting unnecessary antibiotic use.

Why we should use these bacteria in fertilizers

OPINION: A certain type of bacteria can reduce emissions as well as help food production. Scientist Kedir Woliy Jillo explains how.

New maths to predict dangerous hospital epidemics

Mathematicians are now developing completely new statistical calculations on the world’s fastest computers in order to be able to predict how epidemics of dangerous hospital bacteria spread.

The world’s largest bacterial study of baby poo

Daily samples of baby poo taken throughout a full year will reveal how the bacterial community changes in the gut of infants.

Should pneumonia be treated with antibiotics?

Many children are given antibiotics for pneumonia unnecessarily. Antibiotics only work for bacterial infections and most cases of pneumonia are caused by viruses.

Norway fights back against superbugs

A new national strategy on antimicrobial resistance aims to cut antibiotic use in Norway. But not enough is known about cutting use without compromising treatment, experts say.

Time to rethink how fungi and bacteria impact the climate

A Swedish and US researcher think climate models have to be revised. A Norwegian expert has doubts about that.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are everywhere

Nasty superbugs – bacteria resistant to nearly every antibiotic – are not just found in chicken fillets. They can be anywhere, from your kitchen counter to the local creek. There’s no way to know if you're carrying them around inside you, either. Not until you're in trouble.

Bacteria can wake up in your kitchen after a thousand years of sleep

Do you ever cook too much rice or pasta and save the remains for another day? Then you should watch out for this little critter. The bacteria can have been dormant for over a millennium – only to be energised back to life when you prepare your dinner.

Zebras attracted to lethal anthrax grass

Grazing zebras in Namibia fall for a deadly temptation. Grass and vegetation grows better at spots where anthrax infections have caused animals to fall down, die and decompose.

Acute family stress can impact a child’s immune system

High levels of stress in a family can undermine a child’s immune system, making it easier for viruses and bacteria to do their worst.

Weak antibiotic doses undermine our body’s defences

Swedish scientists have found how an insufficient treatment can make cholera bacteria resistant to our immune system.

Wet tundra can also capture carbon

Do permafrost thaws and bacteria comprise a climate bomb in the Arctic?

The real food hazards in our kitchens

Some common hygienic mistakes in the kitchen can be devastating. Others are less risky than you might think.

Making Norway's deadliest food

It's food, but not as we know it: a new processing plant is set to produce sausages packed with deadly E.coli and cheese full of Listeria – to save us from food poisoning.

Putting the squeeze on food bacteria

Using twice the pressure you would find at an ocean depth of 11,000 metres we can rid food of bacteria in a new and rather delicate way.

The horrific disease that won’t die

The agonising history of leprosy in Norway has been relocated to a museum in Bergen. The misery was so overwhelming that it inspired pioneering initiatives. It resulted in the world’s first patient registry and the discovery of leprosy bacilli.

Teens are major yellow staph carriers

Seven out of ten 15- and 16-year-olds in two municipalities in Northern Norway are long-term carriers of yellow staphylococci in their throats and about half carry the bacteria in their nasal passages.

What’s the deal with morning breath?

While you sleep the bacteria in your mouth are forced onto a low-carb diet. They protest by gassing your breath with sulphur.

Microbe masters

Viruses, bacteria and parasites make us sneeze, poop or scratch our behinds. Can they also be behind some of the world’s major cultural differences?

Poisoned from the inside

Can such a diversity of ailments as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, asthma, autism and irritable bowel syndrome all originate in the intestines?