Although disposable storage bags are so handy, it can be wasteful to use a zip-top plastic baggie just once and then throw it away. But, in the name of being environmentally conscious, is it actually safe to wash and reuse the plastic bags?

Although disposable storage bags are so handy, it can be wasteful to use a zip-top plastic baggie just once and then throw it away. But, in the name of being environmentally conscious, is it actually safe to wash and reuse the plastic bags?

Bacteria are literally everywhere -- in oceans, in soils, in extreme environments like hot springs, and even alongside and inside other organisms including humans. They're nearly invisible, yet they play a big role in almost every facet of life on Earth.

The team of UNLV microbiologists set up their equipment in the end of a pipe connected to a natural spring, hoping to filter some of the smallest known living things out of the nearly 4,000-year-old water.

Current regulations of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes require new species to be grown in a lab and distributed as pure and viable cultures. To prove it, you have to have more than one specimen. A team of scientists presented a new system, the SeqCode, and a corresponding registration portal in an article published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

Scientists are just starting to uncover the vast diversity of microbes out there. The only problem? No one can agree on how to name them.

The International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes recently pulled the rank of phylum into its code of official nomenclature. Experts say the move will help standardize science in the long run but potentially disrupt research now.

Nearly three weeks since a 5-month-old pup died of toxic shock after a dip in the Virgin River at Zion National Park, park and health officials are still puzzled how the deadly organisms wound up in the waters.