Microbes
- Life
Year in review: Microbe discoveries spur rethink of treetop of life
Microbes discovered in Arctic mud this year could be the closest relatives yet found to the single-celled ancestor that made life so complicated.
- Microbes
Gut microbes signal when dinner is done
Helpful E. coli bacteria that live in the guts of animals produce proteins that can decrease an animal’s appetite only 20 minutes after receiving nutrients
- Animals
Getting creative to cut methane from cows
Changing feed, giving vaccines and selective breeding may enable scientists to help beef and dairy cattle shake their title as one of society's worst methane producers.
- Climate
Kangaroo farts may not be so eco-friendly after all
Kangaroos fart methane, but not much thanks to the metabolism of gut microbes
- Animals
Diagram captures microbes’ influence across animal kingdom
A network diagram of animal species shows that many microbes living in humans also make themselves at home in dogs, pigs and cattle.
- Paleontology
Vampire microbes sucked some ancient life dry
Hole-ridden fossils suggest that vampirelike microbes were among the first predators that targeted eukaryotes.
- Animals
Don’t judge a whale’s gut microbiome by diet alone
Evolutionary history and diet may both determine the microbes that live in a baleen whale's stomach, researchers report.
- Animals
Invading Argentine ants carry virus that attacks bees
The first survey of viruses in the globally invasive Argentine ant brings both potentially bad and good news.
- Animals
Invading Argentine ant hordes carry a virus that attacks bees
Invasive Argentine ants may be reservoirs for a virus menacing honeybees — and for previously unknown virus.
- Genetics
DNA architecture, novel forensics offer new clues
Going from theory to practice is always rife with problems, be it shifting from the sequence of DNA’s letters to observing its dynamic machinations or from an identity marker in the lab to a piece of courtroom evidence.
- Life
Extinction in lab bottle was a fluke, experiment finds
Extinction in a bottle was a random catastrophe, not survival of the fittest.
- Microbes
Bacteria in flowers may boost honeybees’ healthy gut microbes
Honeybees may deliver doses of probiotics to the hive to help feed baby bees’ microbiome.
