Using Irradiation to Make Food Safer for Consumers In the world today, there is a limited access to fresh and uncontaminated food. Gunjan Sihna, of Popular Science, reports that "The U. S. Centers of Disease Control estimates 6.5 million confirmed cases and more than 25 million additional u...

Each year up to 81 million Americans suffer from a foodborne illness; out of this number, 9,100 of them die (Gavzer 1997). By recognizing the specific cases that have involved food poisoning, this number can be put into perspective with much greater ease. In August of 1997, Hudson Foods order...

This paper is directed at the general public, and more specifically toward the nonscientific population. I feel that it is the type of paper that could be distributed in pharmacies and doctors offices in the form of a pamphlet. The scientific information is intended to be understandable for indivi...

Protists Protists are plant-like, animal–like, or fungi-like organisms with one or more cells (single or multicelluar organisms). Asexual reproduction is common. It occurs by mitosis or binary fission in most species. Sexual reproduction is less common and has not been seen in many protists...

Bacteria - Oldest, structurally simplest, most abundant forms of life - Only organism with prokaryotic cellular organization - The only members of the kingdom Monera (4800 different kinds) - Characteristics change depending on growth conditions - Maintenance of lif...

Resistance Is Futile: The Dilemma of Antibiotic-Resistance Has man pinned the arm behind the back of Mother Nature? Have humans finally won this terrible pathogenic onslaught? Apparently not-the Era of Epidemics has risen once again, and it looks as if humans are being bumped off the top of the fo...

Foodborne Illness What is Foodborne Illness? According to a medical dictionary, foodborne illness is an acute gastrointestinal infection caused by consuming food contaminated with pathogenic, bacteria, toxins, viruses, prions or parasites. Such contamination was caused by improper food handl...

Extremophiles The term extremophiles is applied to groups of microorganisms that live and thrive in places where most living creatures could not survive. Extremophiles can be grouped into two categories; Bacteria, simple celled creatures whose cells lack a nucleus, and eukarya, whose cell...

Since antibiotics, such as penicillin, became widely available in the 1940s, they have been called miracle drugs. They have been able to eliminate bacteria without significantly harming the other cells of the host. Now with each passing year, bacteria that are immune to antibiotics have become more...

Our environment has been bombarded with toxins since the Industrial Revolution. Everything from cigarette smoke to the plastic factory down the road contaminates the air, water, and land causing harm to all living organisms. Monitoring and controlling toxins is the first step to removing them. Afte...

Summary: Parasite Rex was a complex book describing the life of a parasite. In today's society, parasites are seen as useless creatures that live their lives at the expense of another's, but Carl Zimmer portrays them in a much different light. He brilliantly displays that parasites have r...