1,374 results
- Health & Medicine
Clean inside those bagpipes — and trumpets and clarinets
Bagpipes’ moist interiors may be the perfect breeding ground for yeasts and molds.
- Life
Lichens are an early warning system for forest health
Lichens, fascinating mosaics of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria, are made for sensing environmental change.
- Genetics
How to grow toxin-free corn
Corn genetically altered to produce specialized molecules may prevent a fungus from tainting it with carcinogenic toxins.
- Life
Studying cheese reveals how microbes interact
Microbiologist Rachel Dutton uses cheese rinds to study how microbes form communities.
- Animals
New book tells strange tales of evolution
'The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar' features a cadre of critters that have evolved seemingly bizarre solutions to some of life’s biggest problems.
- Animals
Root fungi make or break monarchs’ chances against parasite
Fungi that live amid the roots of milkweed plants change the chemicals produced in the plant’s leaves, which can either aid or hinder a monarch butterfly’s ability to fight off parasites.
- Life
Scientists find way to break through bad bacteria’s defenses
Enzymes can break down bacterial biofilm’s sugary walls.
- Animals
Lizard mom’s microbiome may protect her eggs
Striped plateau lizard moms don’t do any parenting beyond laying eggs. But they may convey protection from pathogens with help from their microbiome.
- Paleontology
Woolly mammoths’ last request: Got water?
Woolly mammoths survived on an Alaskan island thousands of years after mainland mammoths went extinct. But they died out when their lakes dried up, thanks to a warming climate and rising sea levels.
- Animals
How Houdini tadpoles escape certain death
High-speed video of red-eyed tree frog embryos reveals the secrets to their getaway plans.
- Life
Truffles aren’t laced with radioactive cesium
Fallout from the Chernobyl disaster hasn’t made truffles dangerously radioactive, scientists find.
- Life
Microbes show up on schedule after death
Microbes in the soil beneath dead bodies offer forensic clues for time and place of death.
