Microbes

Microbes

Check out the communities of bacteria living on your tongue

Bacteria scraped off the tongue offer a window into how the microbes structure their communities.

Environment

Greener than burial? Turning human bodies into worm food

Composting human bodies yielded good results — and good soil — in one small study. It could become an alternative to burial or cremation in one state.

Earth

Desert trails and microbial life excite this soil scientist

To help her desert community, Lydia Jennings focuses her research on how mining affects soil microbes.

Life

Scientists Say: Fermentation

Fermentation breaks down carbohydrates, such as sugars, producing energy and making gases, acids or alcohol. This process can help make foods and fuels.

Health & Medicine

Search speeds up for vaccine against the new coronavirus

Scientists are investigating unusual ways to make drugs to prevent viral infections. One may even be able to treat already sick people.

Health & Medicine

Immune arms-race in bats may make their viruses deadly to people

An overactive immune system may help bats avoid being sickened by many viruses. This may viruses becoming stronger — and deadlier — when they hit other species.

Health & Medicine

Explainer: What is a coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a diverse family of disease-causing agents. Some cause the common cold. Newer ones have emerged to pose more serious threats to people.

Microbes

Globetrotting microbes in airplane sewage may spread antibiotic resistance

Along with harder-to-kill microbes, airplane sewage contains a diverse set of the genes that let bacteria evade antibiotics.

Microbes

Drug-resistant germs kill some 35,000 Americans each year

The new mortality rate may be way low, some experts say. Also troubling are two new germs that have emerged as big and urgent threats.

Animals

Scientists Say: Species

This word describes organisms grouped by their similarities in genetics and physical traits. But defining species can be tricky.

Animals

Cool Jobs: Poop investigators

Far from just being waste, poop is loaded with clues to the health, biology and behavior of whatever body produced it.

Animals

Mystery disease is killing Caribbean corals

Scientists are racing to pin down a new coral disease that’s “annihilating” whole species from Caribbean reefs.