FOR KIDS: Microscopic caffeine fiends
Researchers create a bacterium that can?t live or reproduce without a stimulant found in soft drinks, chocolate, coffee and tea
Web edition: April 15, 2013
Researchers create a bacterium that can?t live or reproduce without a stimulant found in soft drinks, chocolate, coffee and tea
By Sid Perkins
Web edition: April 15, 2013
Scientists can use a new microbe to measure caffeine in beverages. Where caffeine is present, the bacteria grow and the liquid turns cloudy. In caffeine-free Coke (top left), no cloudiness appears.
Credit: Barrick Lab/University of Texas at Austin
Maybe you?ve heard coffee or cola drinkers say they?re ?addicted? to caffeine. But a passion for this stimulant doesn?t compare to actually needing caffeine to survive and reproduce. Researchers recently transformed a germ into a true caffeine fiend. And when they were through, this bacterium had to consume caffeine ? or die.
Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Microscopic caffeine fiends
Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349696/title/FOR_KIDS_Microscopic_caffeine_fiends
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