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Magazine
In the March 4 SN: Search for sustainable catalysts, deflating cancer’s defenses, species miscounts, frog spit secrets, an acrobatic bat robot, coconut-cracking crabs, baffling X-ray bump, neutron’s elusive lifetime, Zika’s baby photo and more.
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News
Microbes survived inside giant cave crystals for up to 50,000 years
02/18/2017 - 12:55 Microbes, Genetics, AstrobiologyBOSTON — Microbes found stowed inside giant crystals in caves in Chihuahua, Mexico, may have survived there for tens of thousands of years. The microorganisms, which appear to be vastly different from nearly all life-forms found on Earth, offer a good indication of how resilient life can be in extremely harsh environments, including those found on other planets.
“These organisms are so...
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News
Fossil microbes show how some life bounced back after dino-killing impact
12/13/2016 - 17:07 Earth, Microbes, PaleontologySAN FRANCISCO — The first post-apocalypse tenants of ground zero of the dinosaur extinction didn’t waste much time moving in.
Drilling into the crater left by the dino-devastating Chicxulub impact in Mexico, researchers uncovered the fossilized remains of pioneering microbes. These “disaster species” colonized the harsh waters above the crater within hundreds of years of the impact, the...
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For Daily Use
Cut leaves in bagged salads help Salmonella grow
11/28/2016 - 15:00 MicrobesThat past-its-prime bag of spinach buried in the back of your fridge should probably hit the compost heap instead of your dinner plate. The watery gunk that accumulates at the bottom of bagged salad mix is the perfect breeding ground for Salmonella bacteria that could make people sick, researchers report November 18 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
The culprit? The juice that...
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News in Brief
Bacteria help carnivorous plants drown their prey
11/22/2016 - 19:05 Plants, Microbes, EcologyBacteria may be a meat-eating plant’s best friends thanks to their power to reduce the surface tension of water.
The carnivorous pitcher plant Darlingtonia californica releases water into the tall vases of its leaves, creating deathtraps where insect prey drown. Water in a pitcher leaf starts clear. But after about a week, thanks to bacteria, it turns “murky brown to a dark red and...
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Feature
Lichens are an early warning system for forest health
11/15/2016 - 05:30 Fungi, Microbes, EcologyView the slideshow
Ecologist Linda Geiser works her way through thick undergrowth on the steep hills of the Bull Run Watershed just outside of Portland, Ore. Every step in her heavy boots is deliberate. It would be easy to break an ankle here, or worse. A dense sea of ferns and berry bushes hides deep pits and sharp fallen branches.
This treacherous slope is a U.S. Forest Service ...
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50 Years Ago
Staph infections still a concern
10/20/2016 - 12:00 Health, Microbes, BiomedicineNew hope for control of staph infections
Staphylococcal infections — especially rampant in hospitals and responsible for … some fatal disorders — may be virtually stamped out. Researchers … have extracted teichoic acid from the bacteria’s cell wall and used it to protect groups of mice from subsequent massive doses of virulent staph organisms. — Science News, October 29, 1966
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News
Ancient microbe fossils show earliest evidence of shell making
09/28/2016 - 14:37 Paleontology, Evolution, MicrobesDENVER — Life on Earth got into the shell game more than 200 million years earlier than previously thought.
Fossilized eukaryotes — complex life-forms that include animals and plants — discovered in Canada are decked out in armorlike layers of mineral plates, paleobiologist Phoebe Cohen said September 27 at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. At about 809 million years...
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Feature
Lawrence David’s gut check gets personal
Lawrence David, 33Computational biologistDuke University09/21/2016 - 11:06 Human Evolution, Microbes, CellsA Jim Carrey movie inspired computational biologist Lawrence David to change the course of his research. As a graduate student, David saw Yes Man, a 2008 film in which Carrey’s character is forced to say yes to all propositions.
David thought the movie’s message about opening yourself to new experiences, even uncomfortable ones,...
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Feature
Melissa Omand’s clever tech follows the fate of ocean carbon
Melissa Omand, 36OceanographerUniversity of Rhode Island09/21/2016 - 11:04 Oceans, Microbes, ClimateAs chief scientist for a voyage of the research vessel Endeavor, oceanographer Melissa Omand oversaw everything from the deployment of robotic submarines to crew-member bunk assignments. The November 2015 expedition 150 kilometers off Rhode Island’s coast was collecting data for Omand’s ongoing investigations of the fate of carbon...
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News
Scientists watch as bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance
09/08/2016 - 14:00 Evolution, Microbiology, MicrobesView video
For bacteria, practice makes perfect: Adjusting to ever higher levels of antibiotics preps them to morph into super resistant strains, and scientists can now watch it happen. A new device — a huge petri dish coated with different concentrations of antibiotics — makes this normally hidden process visible, microbiologist Michael Baym and colleagues report in the Sept. 9 Science...