Germaphobes can finally chill out, because Mother Nature — and all of her bacteria — have your back. The news: This week, researchers at Northeastern University in Boston unearthed a new source for creating powerful antibiotics: dirt. To test out teixobactin’s powers, the researchers had to figure out how to grow it in a lab […]

People find both cases fascinating but for very different reasons, said Jack Levin, a criminologist and sociologist at Boston’s Northeastern University. “In the case of the marathon bombing, the fascination comes from a widespread feeling that people have that they are vulnerable. There’s a negative fascination there,” he said. “People are scared to death by […]

A study published by The Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University noted that as the baby boom generation ages, many homeowners will look to downsize their empty nests. “This will likely put a large number of single-family suburban homes on the market relative to the past decade,” the […]

“The jury, given the evidence presented and looking only at that incident as opposed to other behaviors of his, came to the right verdict,” says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. “The rest of us have the benefit now of hindsight and foresight surrounding the trial. [But] we are not bound […]

Several college presidents said Friday that while many details remain to be ironed out, they were excited by the prospect of using the games to highlight the city’s higher-education players on the world’s stage. “We all realize this is a special moment for Boston, and we support the opportunity and frankly the obligation to work […]

Working fathers who see their children daily are more satisfied with their jobs and less likely to resign, according to a new study. The findings, to be published next month in the Academy of Management Perspectives, suggests that companies should allow working fathers time with family as way to increase employee retention. It also hints […]

Antibiotics are among the most potent tools in public health, but across the globe, bugs are evolving resistance to our decades-old drugs. Now, Kim Lewis, a professor of molecular microbiology at Northeastern University, found a way to unlock the potential of not just a new antibiotic, but the entire world of bacteria growing in soil. […]

“If you’re going to host the Olympics, now you have to get it done on a certain day,” Professor Stephanie Pollack, of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, told Quinn. “It gives you a calendar that you cannot miss, and public projects don’t usually have this.” So, if this is […]

Scientists have discovered a potentially powerful antibiotic that can kill some of the most dangerous “superbugs” — serious infections that are resistant to standard medications. Superbugs, which can’t be killed by antibiotics, are a growing threat to public health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sickening 2 million Americans a year and […]

Max Abrahms, a terrorism analyst and professor at Northeastern University, said, “I’m worried that there is another plot developing now that hasn’t happened yet. These attacks are really inevitable and there is nothing that law enforcement can do. If a group of terrorists wants to strike a soft target, particularly in a democracy, they’re going […]

Antibiotics are overprescribed, and there’s been a highly publicized rise of infections that are resistant to the antibiotics we currently have in use. But researchers at Northeastern University may have just found what some scientists are calling a “game changing” discovery. Northeastern University Distinguished Professor and the study’s lead author, Kim Lewis, says that pathogens’ resistance […]

A plastic storage crate filled with backyard dirt might have yielded the most powerful antibiotic discovered in decades. Employing a novel microfluidic device to grow soil bacteria, researchers in Boston and Bonn, Germany, say they have identified a new type of antibiotic that kills the bacteria that cause pneumonia, staph, and blood infections. The antibiotic, […]