All Stories by Sarah Schwartz
- Agriculture
How silicon turns tomato plants into mean, green, pest-killing machines
Treated plants fight pests without the need for toxic pesticides, oozing a "larval toffee" that stunts tomato pinworms’ growth and attracts predators.
- Plants
Scary tomato appears to bleed
A new species of Australian bush tomato bleeds when injured and turns bony in old age.
- Health & Medicine
Early work on human growth hormone paved way for synthetic versions
In 1966, researchers reported the complete chemical structure of human growth hormone. Today synthetic growth hormone is used to treat growth hormone deficiency.
- Life
How to trap sperm
Lab-made beads can trick and trap sperm, potentially preventing pregnancy or selecting sperm for fertility treatments.
- Microbes
Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes
Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.
- Animals
Dragons sleep like mammals and birds
Some lizards may sleep in the same way as mammals and birds, a new brain wave study finds.
- Life
Bacteria use cool trick to make ice
By reordering nearby water molecules, Pseudomonas syringae bacteria can make ice.
- Agriculture
Bacterium still a major source of crop pesticide
Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria have provided pest-fighting toxins for over 50 years.
- Health & Medicine
Clusters of cancer cells get around by moving single file
Clusters of cancer cells squeeze through thin blood vessels by aligning single file.
- Ecosystems
Heat may outpace corals’ ability to cope
Corals may soon lose their ability to withstand warming waters.
- Life
Typhoid toxin aids survival in mice
A DNA-damaging bacterial protein may prolong the lives of infected animals.
- Microbes
This microbe makes a meal of plastic
A newly identified bacterium can break down plastic waste.
