Bacteria fly into the Atacama Desert every afternoon on the wind
22 August 2019
The Atacama Desert is one of the most hostile places on Earth, but new microbes arrive there every day on dust grains carried by the wind
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Premium
Zombieland: The vast world of hidden microbes miles beneath your feet
8 May 2019
No matter how deep we dig, life has always found a way to survive. The remarkable story of these impossible microbes can teach us about how life evolved
Lizards keep evolving toxic green blood and we don't know why
16 May 2018
All the green-blooded lizards in the world live in New Guinea, but it turns out the trait has evolved there independently at least four times
Oxygen may have helped complex life arise a billion years early
23 April 2018
Earth’s air suddenly got a lot more oxygen around 1.6 billion years ago and that could have triggered the evolution of large multicellular organisms
Weird Antarctic ice may explain how life endured on frozen Earth
21 March 2018
A strange discovery, made by polar explorer Robert Scott a century ago, might explain how complex life survived when the planet froze over into “Snowball Earth”
Medicine for sick koalas turns out to actually kill them
21 March 2018
Koalas are often given antibiotics to treat a lethal strain of chlamydia, but the medicines often kill the koalas by wiping out friendly bacteria in their guts
Chimps are now dying of the common cold and they are all at risk
25 January 2018
The deaths of five Ugandan chimpanzees have been traced to a human cold virus, and DNA tests suggest all African chimps are vulnerable
Ancient microbes caused Earth’s first ever global warming
11 December 2017
Over 3 billion years ago, the sun was faint so our planet should have been a snowball. But it wasn’t – and microorganisms may have been what kept it warm
NASA’s planetary protection officer will defend Mars, not Earth
3 August 2017
A NASA job advert has made for excited headlines, but the agency isn’t hiring someone to protect us from aliens – it wants someone to protect alien microbes from us
Newly-evolved microbes may be breaking down ocean plastics
25 May 2017
There is less plastic in our oceans than expected because life is evolving the ability to biodegrade it, one team is claiming
