5,519 results
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Letters
A climate tipping point In Janet Raloff’s article “Forest invades tundra” (SN: 7/5/08, p. 26), there seems to be a paradox. Raloff says that the albedo from normal snow coverage of the tundra “helps maintain the region’s chilly temperatures,” implying that the coverage also preserves the mats of plant matter. A little later in the […]
- Earth
Clay That Kills: Ground yields antibacterial agents
A special type of French clay smothers a diverse array of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains and a particularly nasty pathogen that causes skin ulcers.
- Health & Medicine
Superbug: What makes one bacterium so deadly
A molecule that pierces immune cells gives some aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria their fearsome virulence.
- Chemistry
Holey Copper Pipes!
Engineers are homing in on germs and other surprises behind the development of tiny holes in home water pipes.
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19920
There is already a Web site that also aims to answer “What’s in my backyard?” At ZipcodeZoo.com, David Stang has assembled close to 3 million pages of information (one species per page) based on more than 37 million field observations that include latitude and longitude. Taxonomic information is provided, and there are more than 250,000 […]
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Bacteria go for a spin
Researchers may have found the mechanism powering a mysterious gliding motion in bacteria.
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- Tech
Cellular Smugglers: Laden nanoparticles hitch a ride on bacteria
Molecular cargoes loaded onto nanoparticles can sneak into mammalian cells on the backs of bacteria.
- Earth
Grazing on the Periodic Table: Some ancient microorganisms lived on a diet of pure sulfur
Microorganisms that lived 3.5 billion years ago obtained energy by metabolizing pure sulfur.
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The origins of immunity?
In social amoebas, sluglike clusters of usually independent organisms, certain cells take on a protective role that hints at the origin of immune systems in higher animals.
- Planetary Science
Water’s role in Martian chemistry becoming clearer
As mission nears end, Phoenix Mars Lander finds strong evidence for minerals similar to those formed on Earth by liquid water.
- Earth
Challenging ethanol’s dirty reputation
An inexpensive way to make ethanol from wood chips reduces net greenhouse gas emissions as much as more costly methods.
