Microbes
- Life
For bacteria, assassination can breed cooperation
Cholera bacteria stabbing each other can encourage the evolution of cooperation.
- 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.
- 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.
- Microbes
Thaw tests turn up dicey bagged ice
Tests of bagged ice found that 19 percent exceeded recommended thresholds for bacterial contamination.
- Ecosystems
Ocean plankton held hostage by pirate viruses
The most abundant photosynthesizers on Earth stop storing carbon when they catch a virus.
- 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.
- Microbes
Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes
Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.
- Life
Bacteria use cool trick to make ice
By reordering nearby water molecules, Pseudomonas syringae bacteria can make ice.
- Agriculture
Bacterium still a major source of crop pesticide
Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria have provided pest-fighting toxins for over 50 years.
- Microbes
This microbe makes a meal of plastic
A newly identified bacterium can break down plastic waste.
