Microbes

  1. 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.

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  2. Life

    For bacteria, assassination can breed cooperation

    Cholera bacteria stabbing each other can encourage the evolution of cooperation.

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  3. 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.

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  4. Animals

    Readers mesmerized by ‘Strange visions’

    Animal vision, ice-making microbes, brain maps and more reader feedback.

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  5. Microbes

    Tests turn up dicey bagged ice

    Tests of bagged ice found that 19 percent exceeded recommended thresholds for bacterial contamination.

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  6. Microbes

    Thaw tests turn up dicey bagged ice

    Tests of bagged ice found that 19 percent exceeded recommended thresholds for bacterial contamination.

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  7. Ecosystems

    Ocean plankton held hostage by pirate viruses

    The most abundant photosynthesizers on Earth stop storing carbon when they catch a virus.

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  8. Animals

    Antibiotics in cattle leave their mark in dung

    Treating cattle with antibiotics may have side effects for dung beetles, microbes and greenhouse gases.

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  9. 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.

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  10. Microbes

    Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes

    Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.

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  11. Life

    Bacteria use cool trick to make ice

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

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  12. Agriculture

    Bacterium still a major source of crop pesticide

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

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