Microbes

  1. Plants

    Wily bacteria create ‘zombie’ plants

    Scientists have discovered how some plant pathogens ensure their own survival by transforming flowering plants into strictly leaf-producing ones. These green ‘zombies’ attract insects that the parasites need to help them spread to other plants.

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  2. Microbes

    A success for designer life

    Synthetic biologists are scientists who create custom organisms in the lab. Their efforts have just taken a big step forward. They have created the first lab-made yeast chromosome. The advance could lead to entirely synthetic organisms customized to produce food, fuel or medicine.

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  3. Animals

    Sea otters picked up swine flu

    A new study finds that large numbers of sea otters off of the U.S. Pacific coast have been exposed to the ‘pandemic’ type of this killer virus.

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  4. Microbes

    Return of the giant zombie virus

    Scientists have discovered a new type of virus in Siberian soils. It's the largest virus ever discovered. And guess what: It could infect cells even after 30,000 years in cold storage.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Some of chocolate’s health benefits may trace to ‘bugs’

    Dark chocolate offers people a number of health benefits. A new study finds that the breakdown of chocolate by microbes in the human gut be behind some benefits.

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  6. Microbes

    Arctic thaw is spreading wildlife diseases

    Polar animals are encountering new, killer parasites as melting ice unlocks their access to new hosts.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    HIV: Reversing a death sentence

    New research suggests the infection, while serious, can be treated — and maybe cured.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Mining medicine from poop

    Researchers find a much less yucky way to treat people with a common killer infection.

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  9. Microbes

    Slimming germs

    In the gut, the right microbe mix can help keep off extra weight — at least in mice.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Explainer: Where and when did HIV begin?

    The virus that causes AIDS may have evolved in monkeys or apes more than a century ago.

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  11. Microbes

    Mystery microbes of the sea

    Biologists find archaea a true curiosity. They make up one of life’s three main branches. The two better known branches are bacteria and eukaryotes (u KARE ee oatz). That last branch includes animals, plants and fungi. But archaea have remained mysterious. Very little is known about them. In fact, their unique status wasn’t even recognized until relatively recently, in 1977.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Camels linked to mystery disease

    A mysterious and deadly virus has sickened 94 people — killing 46 — in parts of the Middle East, Europe and northern Africa. A new study finds that camels (the one-humped type) may have introduced the new disease to people. The germ responsible is a virus that lives in people’s lungs, throats and noses. Scientists recently named the disease it causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS.

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