5,519 results
- Animals
Gut microbes may put barrier between species
Wiping out gut bacteria in wasps saves crossbred offspring from death, suggesting that microbes may play a role in speciation.
- Health & Medicine
Waiting to exhale
Scientists sift through the chemical potpourri that escapes our lungs for new ways to diagnose disease.
- Planetary Science
Ancient Martian meteorite preserves chunks of planet’s early crust
Rock could reveal what Mars was like 4.4 billion years ago.
- Life
Thank insects and microbes that we aren’t over our knees in feces
Ever wondered why you’re not drowning in poop? Scientists harnessed the power of citizen science to find the beetles and microbes we can thank for that.
- Space
American Physical Society meeting
A supernova’s remnants possibly showing up in fossils and an explanation for the Crab Nebula are among highlights from the physics meeting.
- Tech
A turkey’s wattle inspires a biosensor’s design
A group of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley have developed a color-changing biosensor inspired by a turkey’s wattle.
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Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own by David Toomey
Organisms in extreme environments — from bacteria deep under the ocean floor to imagined creatures on distant moons — challenge definitions of life. W.W. Norton & Co., 2013, 268 p., $25.95
- Space
Belief in multiverse requires exceptional vision
If you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. That’s an old philosophy, one that many scientists swallowed whole. But as Ziva David of NCIS would say, it’s total salami. After all, you can’t see bacteria and viruses, but they can still kill you. Yet some scientists still invoke that philosophy to deny the scientific status […]
- Chemistry
Gold-digging microbe
By spitting out a molecule, a bacterium draws solid gold out of solution.
- Life
Foot fungi a thriving, diverse community
A skin census finds that toes and heels have the most fungal types.
- Life
Bony bacteria
A newly described species of blue-green algae builds hard structures inside its cells.
- Health & Medicine
Easy steps limit antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals
Intensive care units that bathe patients and take other precautions have fewer cases of staph, a study finds.
