Vampires don't only haunt the pages of classic novels and spook us in horror movies — they're also lurking inside the human body.
In new research, scientists have found that several bacteria responsible for life-threatening bloodstream infections enter our blood because they are attracted to the liquid, or serum, within it. This is most likely because human blood contains a molecule — the amino acid L-serine — that bacteria can use as food. The researchers behind the study have dubbed this phenomenon "bacterial vampirism."
