by Karen G. Lloyd — The story behind some extremely long-lived microbial cells.

Viruses are ubiquitous mobile genetic elements that are obligate symbionts of cellular life forms and replicate exclusively within host cells. The ...

Over the past century, the generalized Lotka–Volterra (GLV) model has grown from a mathematical curiosity to a cornerstone of theoretical ecology. Here we celebrate the enduring legacy of Lotka and Vo...

Collodaria harboring photosymbiotic microalgae are major primary producers in oligotrophic oceans. Stable-isotope labelling revealed distinct roles of phototrophy and osmotrophy, refining our understa...

An analysis of 75 meteorite falls identified seven distinct processes that occur as space rocks melt, break apart, and slow down before reaching the ground.

Biologists ponder what fundamental discoveries might match the excitement of the Higgs boson.

Research on the structural and functional potential of minimal amino acid alphabets is shifting from reductive ‘pruning’ of extant proteins to bottom-up exploration of combinatorial sequence space. Th...

The evidence is there that the molecular ingredients for life can form in space, but that doesn't mean that they did

Background The symbiosis between corals and dinoflagellate algae is disrupted by heat stress, leading to bleaching and subsequent coral mortality, devastating reef habitats. Despite its planetary-scal...

A survey of self identified early career astrobiologists was organized by the NOW early career group FLOW and the Scientific Society of Astrobiology.

For years now, Google has been tweaking its search formula to prop up AI and bury actual links. Now it’s rounding into its final form—and changing the internet forever.

This study reports a bivalent factor, ULTRAPETALA1, that can counteract as well as promote PRC2 activity at hundreds of developmental genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. The pro-PRC2 activity of ULTRAPETAL...

In searches for past and present Martian life, some scientists say we’ve been too cautious to see what’s right in front of us

The NASA Viking Program laid the framework for Mars science, technology, and exploration.

YouTube video by markcrymble

Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1976, Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to successfully land and operate on Mars, transforming our understanding of the Red P...

Extremophiles that thrive in the most unforgiving environments aren’t just biological curiosities. Understanding their resilience has many implications for us.

Published in Microbiology spectrum

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Genomic characterization and toxicity assays identify Karenia cristata as a brevetoxin-producing species that is the dominant component of the prolonged microalgal...

Corals harbor intracellular algal symbionts in specialized organelles that enable them to build diverse reef ecosystems. Corals and other cnidarians have repeatedly evolved this symbiosis through the ...

The chrompodellids are a collection of photosynthetic “chromerids” and heterotrophic “colpodellids,” which are together the sister lineage to the apic…

New modelling suggests that even if we could create cells based on mirror-image biomolecules, their natural counterparts would outcompete them in the wild