Technologies

Sharpest images of living bacteria reveal unexpected membrane structure

The images are so clear that scientists can see proteins on a bacterium’s outer membrane.

Using a microscopy technique that pulls back the curtain on the nanoscale world, researchers have generated the sharpest images of live bacteria ever taken. The high-resolution snaps reveal a patchwork of proteins that make up the outer membrane and, potentially, give scientists a new way to attack the organisms.

In a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the US and UK provide images of the rod-shaped bacterium Escherichia Coli, which is commonly found in our gastrointestinal tracts and helps digest food. It’s a mostly harmless citizen of our guts, but certain E. Coli strains can cause severe illness. In recent years, scientists have shown that these strains are becoming more resistant to antibiotics.

The bacteria are, of course, incredibly tiny. About 150 to 300 individual bacteria could probably fit head-to-toe across the period at the end of this sentence. While regular microscopes can see the bacteria as clumps of rods scattered all across a glass slide, they don’t give us a good idea of the structure of a bacterium’s body and the outer membrane that protects it from our drugs.

«The outer membrane is a formidable barrier against antibiotics and is an important factor in making infectious bacteria resistant to medical treatment,» Bart Hoogenboom, a nanotechnologist at University College London and co-author on the paper, said in a press release. Hoogenboom and his team wanted to take a much closer look and turned to «atomic force microscopy» to study the membrane in greater detail.

Atomic Force Microscopy, or AFM, is a powerful technique to study objects that are just nanometers in length. (A nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter.) Hooked up to a computer, the device can study the surface of tiny, tiny objects by running a fine-tipped probe, just a few nanometers wide, across the surface. The probe moves along the object — whether it’s a microbe, a piece of bone or another nanomaterial — and can sense the undulations present. You can imagine it kind of like a turntable stylus, moving along the grooves of a vinyl record. Totally different process but similar concept.

When the team ran the AFM probe over the surface of a living E. Coli bacterium, they discovered it was a mosaic of proteins. Most areas of the outer membrane were covered in mostly immobile proteins, but there were also islands that lacked any protein at all and were instead full of sugary lipid molecules.

«This suggests that the barrier may not be equally hard to breach or stretch all over the bacterium, but may have stronger and weaker spots that can also be targeted by antibiotics,» Hoogenboom said.

Outer membranes are present on what’s known as «gram-negative» bacteria, like E coli, and not gram-positive bacteria, like Staphylococcus. The «gram» doesn’t refer to weight, but a specific test designed to quickly differentiate bacteria based on their cell walls. Notably, gram-negative bacteria have a more impenetrable cell wall, which makes it hard for antibiotics to get in and work to destroy the microbes.

Antibiotic resistance makes infectious diseases harder to treat and can turn common infections into life-threatening scourges. Many antibiotic resistant infections are picked up in hospitals, and the World Health Organization has consistently listed antibiotic resistance as a global health threat over the past few years because it has the potential to upend health care systems.

How the protein patchwork of the outer membrane might affect the strength of a bacteria’s protective covering or how it could help combat antibiotic resistance is not yet known. But with advanced microscopy techniques, scientists can shine a light on a previously unseen realm.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 8, #728

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 8, #728.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle could be tricky. The purple category is one of those «sounds like» groups, that can be really tough to figure out. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Keep at it.

Green group hint: Think Wall Street animals.

Blue group hint: Online encyclopedia subheads.

Purple group hint: $$$.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Persist.

Green group: Animal metaphors in economics.

Blue group: Sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page.

Purple group: Homophones of slang for money.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is persist. The four answers are hold, last, stand and stay.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is animal metaphors in economics. The four answers are bear, bull, dove and hawk.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page. The four answers are born, education, occupation and spouse.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is homophones of slang for money. The four answers are bred, cache, doe and lute.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for June 8, #1450

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,450 for June 8.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough, especially if your first guesses are heavy on vowels. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There are two vowels in today’s Wordle answer, but one is the repeated letter, so you’ll see it twice.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with L.

Wordle hint No. 4: Ending

Today’s Wordle answer ends with a vowel.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer refers to a contract where someone is given the right to use something for a specific time and payment.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is LEASE.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, June 7, No. 1449 was REUSE.

Recent Wordle answers

June 3, No. 1445: ADMIN

June 4, No. 1446: CEASE

June 5, No. 1447: DATUM

June 6, No. 1448: EDIFY

Technologies

Resident Evil Requiem Revealed, but Where’s Leon Kennedy?

The Resident Evil 9 trailer showed off a new character, but not the much-rumored return of Leon.

After a fake-out earlier in Summer Game Fest on Friday, Resident Evil Requiem, or Resident Evil 9, was shown for the first time.

The new title is the first mainline entry since Capcom released Resident Evil Village in 2021, and is rumored to feature series stalwart Leon Kennedy. In the trailer, the only person we saw was a character named Grace Ashcroft, who works for the FBI and appears to have ties to Raccoon City.

For the most hardcore Resident Evil fans, the name Ashcroft will ring a bell. Alyssa Ashcroft was one of the survivors of the online-only title, Resident Evil Outbreak for the PS2. Alyssa was a journalist who was trapped in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2, and she, along with other survivors, had to escape the city before it was destroyed.

Grace is Alyssa’s daughter, and in the trailer, she is going to visit the Remwood Hotel, where Alyssa was murdered. Later in the trailer, images from what appears to be the remnants of a destroyed Raccoon City are shown — including the police department from RE2 — so it appears Resident Evil 9 will return to where the series started.

Leon’s (rumored) return is a big deal for the series, which has made some of its best games with him in the starring role. He first showed up as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2, which built on the original game’s success with more story and improved monsters and level design.

He showed up again in Resident Evil 4, which took the series in a new direction by introducing an over-the-shoulder perspective, instead of the usual static camera angles and tank controls. Leon was also one of several playable protagonists in Resident Evil 6, a game that seemed to forget about its survival horror roots. We mostly don’t talk about that one.

But the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 was an excellent return to form, bringing RE4’s gameplay and much better graphics to a fan-favorite entry. The RE4 remake was a similar success.

Resident Evil Requiem is set to drop Feb. 27, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, but we’re hoping to get our hands on it this weekend. If you want to catch up on older Resident Evil games, Capcom is having a sale that includes basically all the games, including Village and the three remakes.