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Some microbes manage to live in the inhospitable Atacama desert

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


Lizards keep evolving toxic green blood and we don't know why

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

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

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

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

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


Hot springs, Yellowstone National Park

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


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