We humans tend to pride ourselves on our ability to adapt, but bacteria have been beating us at this game for billions of years. Our microbial brethren have carved out a niche in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, from deep sea vents to Antarctic lakes. Some hardy bugs can even survive in an upper layer of our…
An international team of researchers has identified a peculiar population of cyanobacteria living within rocks deep below Earth’s surface—a surprising discovery given that cyanobacteria require sunlight to survive. Or so scientists thought.
Our oceans are brimming with microscopic phytoplankton—plant-like organisms that contribute significantly to marine diversity. Tiny though they are, these sea critters, when infected with a particular virus, may influence atmospheric processes such as cloud formation, according to new research.
Your poop is a living forest. Seriously! Hundreds of species of microbes thrive inside of you, helping you to live your best life. Everyone’s microbiome differs—yours from your neighbors’, and different populations’ from one another’s. But there is much scientists still don’t know about the human microbiome. And one…
For some, sneaking a mouthful of raw cookie dough while baking is an indelible—and certainly delicious—part of the process. But while we’ve been told to avoid dough containing raw eggs, a new investigation confirms that tainted raw flour was responsible for an E. coli outbreak in 2016—a finding that will surely test…
Last year, a team of European researchers was alarmed to learn that glaciers covered in pink snow—caused not by an Ocean Spray truck collision, but by snow-dwelling red algae—were melting faster than the surrounding white ice. Now, another group of researchers has observed the same phenomenon halfway across the world…
To learn more about why some germs seem harder to kill in near-weightless conditions, scientists aboard the ISS recently doused a batch of bacteria with antibiotics—an experiment which resulted in a series of startling physical changes that may be helping the bacteria to survive and thrive in space.
There are many mysteries of human biology. Among those perhaps least considered, what do our bodies sound like?
Scientists from the UK caused quite a stir this week, when they announced that we don’t necessarily need to complete a full course of antibiotics in order to treat infections properly. It’s a provocative message, but skeptics say their advice is grossly premature—and even reckless.
HIV transmission is a complex process with factors beyond just who you sleep with and how. The virus ultimately needs to find its way to the correct kinds of cells in order to wreak havoc. And some of the risk, at least for those with penises, may come from the kinds of bacteria on the tip.
Every year we go through the same motions: Scientists figure out what the most common flu strains will be, and prepare a vaccine that will best protect against it. Those who get vaccinated avoid the new strains, those who don’t might get sick. But every so often, a new kind of flu pops up that doctors are unprepared…
Many animals are good at healing us emotionally, like capybaras and tiny kittens in tiny hats. Regrettably though, if we got really sick, no amount of golden retriever puppies could do anything to help us. Komodo dragons, on the other hand, might not be “adorable” in the traditional sense, but they could save us from…
What’s a strand of DNA but data? We often think of its units, the As, Cs, Ts, and Gs, as letters of the words in an instruction manual. But what if, instead, we think of them as biological computer bits, storing the smallest unit of information? What stops scientists from harnessing the power of those units, using the…
The Greenland ice sheet is vast, majestic, pristine....and peppered with bacteria that seem equipped to survive in industrial waste, according to a new study. Which really makes you question the whole the pristine bit, now, doesn’t it?
If the eyes are windows to the soul, they’re open windows, potentially letting in all kinds of unwelcome bugs. To ensure that doesn’t happen, our tears are loaded with microbe-killing compounds and immune cells. In fact, our eyes are so inhospitable that it was long thought they were the only part of our bodies which…
Humans will make outer space dirty.
The human body isn’t just your cells, but a home for trillions of bacteria. We know that many of those bacteria serve important purposes, and imbalances or a lack of diversity could lead to illness. But research into this field is pretty new. At least, new enough that you shouldn’t just transplant someone else’s gut…
A new experiment shows that long-term exposure to microgravity affects bacteria at the genetic level—conferring reproductive advantages that persist even after the bacteria is reintroduced to unaffected colonies and normal levels of gravity here on Earth.
For 15 years, pickle makers from across the East Coast have gathered to celebrate brined vegetables at New York City’s Lower East Side Pickle Day. Last year, thirty thousand people squeezed in lines beside white tents that stretched over a quarter mile. A word appeared on some of the sauerkraut tents: “probiotic.”…
You probably know viruses as the demons behind your nasty cold, the not-quite-living monsters that infiltrate cells and plug in their own genetic material. But the horrible little buggers might have been crucial to forming the cells in our own bodies today.
