All Stories by Beth Mole
- Life
Microbes’ role in truffle scents not trifling
Truffles make their prized aroma with a little help from their microbes, chemists suggest.
- Environment
Fracking doesn’t always go to great depths
Fracking at shallow depths is unexpectedly common in the United States and raises new concern for drinking water contamination.
- Chemistry
Biology may provide just the right chemistry for new drugs
Using enzymes and microbes to make new drugs may help revive the pharmaceutical industry.
- Oceans
Blooming phytoplankton seed clouds in the Southern Ocean
Booming phytoplankton populations spark cloud formation in the Southern Ocean.
- Life
A downy killer wages chemical warfare
The common fungus Beauveria bassiana makes white downy corpses of its victims.
- Tech
Flame-finding pistols set off decades of blazing technology
Researchers unveiled a gun-shaped flame detector in 1965
- Climate
Bumblebee territory shrinking under climate change
Climate change is shrinking bumblebee habitat as southern territories heat up and bumblebees hold their lines in the north.
- Chemistry
Missing enzyme to blame for scentless roses
The unusual enzyme behind roses’ sweet smell may help researchers revive the flower’s potent aroma.
- Environment
Oil-munching microbes cleaning up Gulf marshes faster than expected
Microbes in some of Louisiana’s marshes are breaking down oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill faster than expected.
- Microbes
Spore-powered engines zoom ahead
Engines that run on the dehydration of bacterial spores can power a tiny car and an LED.
- Physics
Common campfire build confirmed as best
A standard method for building fires, making the height about equal to the width, is the most efficient structure for stoking the hottest flames, calculations show.
- Climate
Real estate is tight as marine species move to cooler waters
Marine species migrating amid global warming face shrinking habitats in cooler locations.
