Microbes

  1. Paleontology

    Vampire microbes sucked some ancient life dry

    Hole-ridden fossils suggest that vampirelike microbes were among the first predators that targeted eukaryotes.

    By Thomas Sumner
  2. 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.

    By Helen Thompson
  3. 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.

    By Susan Milius
  4. 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.

    By Susan Milius
  5. 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.

    By Eva Emerson
  6. Life

    Extinction in lab bottle was a fluke, experiment finds

    Extinction in a bottle was a random catastrophe, not survival of the fittest.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  7. 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.

    By Beth Mole
  8. Neuroscience

    Shifting views of brain cells, and other fresh perspectives

    The details emerging from the latest work on glial cells are sure to yield more insights as scientists continue their struggle to understand the mind.

    By Eva Emerson
  9. Life

    The tree of life gets a makeover

    Biology’s tree of life has morphed from the familiar classroom version emphasizing kingdoms into a complex depiction of supergroups, in which animals are aligned with a slew of single-celled cousins.

    By Susan Milius
  10. Life

    Antibody that fights MERS found

    Scientists have isolated a human immune protein that fights the MERS virus in mice.

    By Sarah Schwartz
  11. Life

    Microbes’ role in truffle scents not trifling

    Truffles make their prized aroma with a little help from their microbes, chemists suggest.

    By Beth Mole
  12. Health & Medicine

    Mosquitoes can get a double dose of malaria

    Carrying malaria may make mosquitoes more susceptible to infection with a second strain of the parasite that causes the disease.

    By Tina Hesman Saey