Researchers have identified a parasite protein that has all the makings of a microbial glass jaw: it’s essential, it’s vulnerable and humans have nothing like it, meaning scientists can take pharmacological swings at it with minimal fear of collateral damage.

Scientists have found a specific chemical compound secreted by many predators that makes mice behave fearfully. The research helps scientists better understand animal behavior, and may eventually lead to new insights into how sensory information is processed in human brains.

Researchers have discovered that bacteria transmitted by fleas — and potentially ticks — can be passed to human babies by the mother, causing chronic infections and raising the possibility of bacterially induced birth defects.

Scientists studying a cunning parasite that has commandeered the cells of almost half the world’s human population have begun to zero in on the molecular signals that must be severed to free the organism’s cellular hostages.

Ecologists in Australia have successfully trained a critically endangered marsupial — the northern quoll — to turn its nose up at toxic cane toads.

Researchers have created novel mouse models of the immune system starting with T cells primed for the infectious disease toxoplasmosis by generating cloned mice from these T cells. This type of model more accurately represents how immune cells respond to infectious diseases, and could be used to more reliably study immune cell biology and the role of immune cells in infectious disease. Earlier immune system models are inherently limited by the laboratory procedure involved.

An international team led by researchers has analyzed seroprevalence (antibodies to a disease) of Toxoplasma Gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis in many species, including humans. This latest study reveals that the parasite is widespread in areas where the wild Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) lives, and also in captive breeding centers. Scientists are now undertaking further research into the disease itself.

Porous borders are allowing vendors in Myanmar to offer a door-to-door delivery service for illegal wildlife products such as tiger bone wine to buyers in China, according to TRAFFIC’s latest snapshot into wildlife trade in China.

WWF and TRAFFIC welcome a World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies statement urging its members not to use tiger bone or any other parts from endangered wildlife.

Scientists are using the principles of an iconic quantum mechanics thought experiment — Schrödinger’s superpositioned cat — to test for quantum properties in objects composed of as many as one billion atoms, possibly including the flu virus.