Microbes

  1. Earth

    Fossil microbes show how some life bounced back after dino-killing impact

    Pioneering microbes colonized the waters above the Chicxulub crater within hundreds of years following the impact, new research shows.

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  2. Microbes

    Cut leaves in bagged salads help Salmonella grow

    Juice from torn-up leafy greens helps Salmonella spread in bagged salads.

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  3. Plants

    Bacteria help carnivorous plants drown their prey

    Pitcher plant drowning traps are more difficult for an insect to escape when bacteria colonize them.

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  4. 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.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Staph infections still a concern

    Scientists have been searching for a vaccine against a deadly microbe for 50 years.

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  6. Paleontology

    Ancient microbe fossils show earliest evidence of shell making

    Armor-plated, 809-million-year-old fossilized microbes discovered in Canada are the oldest known evidence of shell making.

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  7. Humans

    Lawrence David’s gut check gets personal

    Computational biologist Lawrence David regularly opens himself to new scientific challenges, including tracking his own microbiome.

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  8. Oceans

    Melissa Omand’s clever tech follows the fate of ocean carbon

    Drawn to the water early, oceanographer Melissa Omand now leads research cruises studying how carbon and nutrients move through the seas.

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  9. Life

    Scientists watch as bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance

    A giant petri dish exposes the evolutionary dynamics behind antibiotic resistance.

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  10. Microbes

    Microbial matter comes out of the dark

    Undiscovered bacteria challenge what scientists know about microbial life.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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