Some of Earth’s tiniest life-forms inhabit slowly sinking particles of fish poop and debris, playing a crucial role in ocean carbon storage The individual cities are microscopic, but collectively they ...

Symbiotic bacteria living inside insect cells have the smallest genomes known for any organism. The findings further muddy the distinction between cellular organelles like mitochondria and the most ...

In the oceans and on land, scientists are discovering rare, transitional organisms that bridge the gap between Earth’s simplest cells and today’s complex ones. By Carl Zimmer A flurry of new studies ...

A research team from POSTECH and ImmunoBiome in Korea, led by Professor Sin-Hyeog Im, has uncovered a new mechanism showing how butyrate—a short-chain fatty acid produced by gut commensal ...

Amid rising demand, miners are turning to biotech firms to help them squeeze more metal out of aging mines. In a pine forest on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the only active nickel mine in the US is ...

Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to study plant microbiomes—communities of microbes living in and around plants—could help improve soil health, boost crop yields, and restore degraded ...

Trees are known for capturing carbon dioxide as they grow. But they also soak up other gases implicated in climate change through microbes in their bark. The tree bark microbes feast on hydrogen, ...

Not all microbes are villains—many are vital to keeping us healthy. Researchers have created a world-first database that tracks beneficial bacteria and natural compounds linked to immune strength, ...

Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. PETALUMA, Calif. — The cows had to be deterred from messing with the ...

A corn field in Waseca, Minnesota. University of Minnesota Twin Cities agricultural researcher Daniel Kaiser found that adding a nitrogen-producing microbe to corn increased yield at this site in ...

Conservation biologists propose a daunting task: protecting Earth’s diversity of bacteria and other microbes. By Carl Zimmer Hundreds of scientists have joined together to save a group of species from ...

With so many coral reefs bleaching and pangolins being poached, it may seem tone-deaf to call for the conservation of species that are too small to see with the naked eye. But that’s exactly what the ...