Britain is facing a "massive" rise in antibiotic-resistant blood poisoning caused by the bacterium E.coli – bringing closer the spectre of diseases that are impossible to treat.

Florence Nightingale may have had a point when she insisted 150 years ago that open windows were the hallmark of a healthy hospital ward, according to a microbiologist who believes air conditioning and an ultra-sterile environment may actually contribute to infections.

Alarming rise in bacteria resistant to antibiotics, Government report finds

Bacteria which cause Legionnaire's disease have been found throughout Hong Kong's brand new, £432 million government headquarters.

The microbiologist Harry Smith was a leading expert on bacterial infection and virulence. Initially eschewing academia for a post at Porton, he subsequently took up a professorship at the University of Birmingham.

US government's hopes of suppressing details of controversial research may be doomed, say scientists

Scotland's chief scientific adviser has been appointed to a similar, newly created, post in the European Commission.

The fossilised remains of the oldest known lifeforms on Earth have been discovered in samples of rock collected near a remote watering hole in the middle of the Australian Outback.

Scientists have found 1,400 strains of bacteria lurking in human belly buttons. The discovery was made during a study in which 95 volunteers allowed a team of microbiologists to gaze at their navels and take swabs from inside their belly buttons.

At a time when retailers fall over themselves to assure customers that their food is fresh and locally-sourced, one company has bucked the trend by offering a "gas-flushed" sandwich with a two-week shelf life.

When bacteria find a way around our defences, we should start to worry

A stomach bug that causes ulcers may help to trigger Parkinson's disease, research suggests.

Depending on your point of view, dirt can be a deadly foe, an unsavoury sight or a mark of authenticity. We live in an age of extreme cleanliness but our conflicted feelings about filth are anything but neat and tidy, argues Andrew Martin

It was one of Nasa's most intriguing messages: an invitation to a briefing where it would "discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for extraterrestrial life". The event held on 2 December at Nasa's headquarters in Washington led to headlines around the world, including The Independent's "Science grapples with the concept that alien life may be among us".