In this study, the authors investigate the effects of different algal growth media on algae's ability to perform carbon dioxide biofixation, or utilize carbon dioxide by fixing it into fatty acids within the cells. More specifically, carbon dioxide biofixation of Chlorella vulgaris was cultured in one of four media options and carbon dioxide was measured and compared to controls. The study results demonstrated that the use of media can enhance algae's capacity for biofixation and this has important implications for developing methods to reduce carbon dioxide in the environment.

Research suggests that less effective styles of parenting tend to negatively affect grades, and more effective styles tend to produce higher grades. In this study, the authors verify previous research and confirm such relationships in a sample of African American students in a college preparatory program. By obtaining students’ perception of their school’s climate and parent’s parenting styles by various methods, the authors determined correlated these perceptions to student grades. They found no significant relationship between school climate and academic achievement.

The authors test potential anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic effects of a polyherbal extract formulation on cultured breast cancer cells.

The authors compare nutritional content of foods found in Western versus Asian grocery stores to determine whether one cultural diet is healthier than the other.

Honey possesses distinctive antimicrobial properties; however, it is unknown which compounds in honey are responsible for these properties. In this research study, Abdel-Azim et al. examine the role of osmotic stress in honey and the antibacterial efficacy of both Manuka and raw pasture honey.

In this article the authors look at the ability of spices to reduce microbial load on a cutting surface by comparing growth of bacteria cultured before and after cleaning with various spice mixtures.

In this study, the authors investigate an alternative way to kill bacteria other than the use of antibiotics, which is useful when considering antibiotic-resistance bacteria. They use bacteriophages, which are are viruses that can infect bacteria, and measure cell lysis. They make some important findings that these bacteriophage can lyse both antibiotic-resistant and non-resistant bacteria.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast is used to produce bioethanol, an alternative to fossil fuels. In this study, authors take advantage of this well studied yeast by genetically engineering them to increase fatty acid biosynthesis and culturing in a cost-effective wastewater based medium; potentially providing a sustainable alternative to petrochemicals.

Understanding how bacteria respond to other bacteria could facilitate their ability to initiate and maintain their infectiousness. The phenomenon by which bacteria signal to each other via chemical signals is called quorum sensing, which could be targeted to deter bacterial infection in some cases if better understood. In this article, the authors study how a bacterium called V. fischeri uses quorum sensing to change bioluminescence, an easy readout that facilitates studying quorum sensing in this strain.

Quorum sensing (QS) is the process in which bacteria recognize and respond to the surrounding cell density, and it can be inhibited by certain antimicrobial substances. This study showed that illumination intensity data is insufficient for evaluating QS activity without proper statistical modeling. It concluded that modeling illumination intensity through time provides a more accurate evaluation of QS activity than conventional cross-sectional analysis.