Microbes
- Paleontology
Greenland may be home to Earth’s oldest fossils
Dating to 3.7 billion years ago, mounds of sediment called stromatolites found in Greenland may be the oldest fossilized evidence of life on Earth.
- Microbes
Bacteria display qualities that a mother would love
Editor in chief Eva Emerson discusses big lessons we can learn from some of Earth's smallest organisms.
By Eva Emerson - Life
Two stationary kinds of bacteria can move when mixed
Bacteria stuck when alone on a dry surface get moving — and get faster — when they evolve together.
By Susan Milius - Life
For bacteria, assassination can breed cooperation
Cholera bacteria stabbing each other can encourage the evolution of cooperation.
By Susan Milius - Life
Yeasts hide in many lichen partnerships
Yeasts newly discovered in common lichens challenge more than a century of thinking about what defines the lichen symbiosis.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Readers mesmerized by ‘Strange visions’
Animal vision, ice-making microbes, brain maps and more reader feedback.
- Microbes
Tests turn up dicey bagged ice
Tests of bagged ice found that 19 percent exceeded recommended thresholds for bacterial contamination.
By Laura Beil - Microbes
Thaw tests turn up dicey bagged ice
Tests of bagged ice found that 19 percent exceeded recommended thresholds for bacterial contamination.
By Laura Beil - Ecosystems
Ocean plankton held hostage by pirate viruses
The most abundant photosynthesizers on Earth stop storing carbon when they catch a virus.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Antibiotics in cattle leave their mark in dung
Treating cattle with antibiotics may have side effects for dung beetles, microbes and greenhouse gases.
- Life
Gut microbe may challenge textbook on complex cells
Science may finally have found a complex eukaryote cell that has lost all of its mitochondria.
By Susan Milius - Microbes
Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes
Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.