Microbes
- Computing
Germs power new paper batteries
New paper-based batteries rely on bacteria to generate electricity. These ‘papertronic’ power systems may be a safer choice for remote sites or dangerous environments.
- Animals
Cool Jobs: Abuzz for bees
These scientists are keeping bees healthy, making medicines for people from honey and constructing bee-inspired robots.
- Microbes
Giant cave crystals may be home to 50,000-year-old microbes
Microbes trapped in crystals in Mexico's Naica mine may represent some of the most distinct life forms ever found. The microbes have remained dormant for up to 50,000 years.
- Ecosystems
Underwater meadows appear to fight ocean germs
The seagrasses that sway in coastal currents are more than aquatic groundcover. They can reduce harmful bacteria that might otherwise sicken neighboring animals, new data show.
- Health & Medicine
Could toothpaste give heart disease the brush-off?
Brushing with a toothpaste that dyes plaque green encourages people to remove more of it. This also lowered inflammation, which may cut someone’s risk of heart disease.
- Microbes
New date for U.S. arrival of the AIDS virus
A new study shows that HIV started circulating at least a decade earlier than previously realized.
- Oceans
Beaches can be a germy playground
Infectious microbes can flourish on sandy beaches. Scientists are now exploring how to find and monitor these hotspots for pollution that can make vacationers sick.
- Life
Scientists watch germs evolve into superbugs
To study how bacteria can evolve resistance to a wide variety of drugs, scientists spread the germs on a food-filled plate the size of a foosball table. Then, they watched resistance rise.
- Health & Medicine
Measles in the Americas: Going, going — gone!
The Americas have at last shed a major childhood scourge: measles. The viral infection used to kill hundreds of children each year. Now the hemisphere only sees cases spread by travelers.
- Microbes
Mouth germs team up to boost disease risk
The oxygen given off by harmless mouth bacteria can help disease-causing invaders grow strong and flourish.
- Fossils
These may be the oldest fossils on Earth
Some mini mounds in Greenland may just be the earliest evidence of life on Earth, deposited a mere 800,000 years after our planet first formed.
- Agriculture
Sneaky! Virus sickens plants, but helps them multiply
The cucumber mosaic virus helps tomato plants lure pollinators. When the plants multiply, the virus now gets new hosts.
