Sarah Schwartz

All Stories by Sarah Schwartz

  1. bloody tomato
    Plants

    Scary tomato appears to bleed

    A new species of Australian bush tomato bleeds when injured and turns bony in old age.

  2. Kryptoprin
    Health & Medicine

    Early work on human growth hormone paved way for synthetic versions

    In 1966, researchers reported the complete chemical structure of human growth hormone. Today synthetic growth hormone is used to treat growth hormone deficiency.

  3. sperm
    Life

    How to trap sperm

    Lab-made beads can trick and trap sperm, potentially preventing pregnancy or selecting sperm for fertility treatments.

  4. swimming hole in Oregon
    Microbes

    Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes

    Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.

  5. a sleeping Australian dragon
    Animals

    Dragons sleep like mammals and birds

    Some lizards may sleep in the same way as mammals and birds, a new brain wave study finds.

  6. artificial snow on a ski slope
    Life

    Bacteria use cool trick to make ice

    By reordering nearby water molecules, Pseudomonas syringae bacteria can make ice.

  7. Bt peanut plants
    Agriculture

    Bacterium still a major source of crop pesticide

    Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria have provided pest-fighting toxins for over 50 years.

  8. magnified image of cells squeezing through a capillary
    Health & Medicine

    Clusters of cancer cells get around by moving single file

    Clusters of cancer cells squeeze through thin blood vessels by aligning single file.

  9. corals
    Ecosystems

    Heat may outpace corals’ ability to cope

    Corals may soon lose their ability to withstand warming waters.

  10. Salmonella enterica
    Life

    Typhoid toxin aids survival in mice

    A DNA-damaging bacterial protein may prolong the lives of infected animals.

  11. PET bottles
    Microbes

    This microbe makes a meal of plastic

    A newly identified bacterium can break down plastic waste.

  12. Meat ants, Iridomyrmex purpureus
    Animals

    Ant antennae provide chemical ID

    Ants use their antennae to identify nest-mates and potential invaders. But antennae also produce the key compounds that ants use to tell friend from foe.