Social interactions affect your microbiome (at least if you’re a chimp)

A new method determines whether bacterial, viral or non-infectious illness is the cause, enabling appropriate treatment

Three tidbits from the recent literature

Originally thought to be sterile, the Dry Valleys in Antarctica have been revealed to play home to a functioning microbial ecosystem, although this is limited at high elevation according to a paper published in The ISME Journal.

Since their introduction, in the late 19th century, Koch's postulates have "evolved". Are they still valid today?

Fibre, the gut, and its bugs - new paper out this week in Nature

Three new host factors support influenza virus replication

A manuscript posted in bioRxiv suggests that we need to rethink the often used maxim that there are 10 times more bacteria in and on our bodies than our own cells