21 June 2023
Microbes that produce nitrogen have made a big difference for reducing fertiliser-related emissions and pollution across millions of acres of farmland in the US. The microbes can be applied directly to the soil or as a coating on seeds
15 May 2023
Certain kinds of "forever chemicals" can be dismantled using bacteria found in wastewater. This points to a possible way of making more of these compounds biodegradable
10 March 2023
A skin and hair product that uses a yeast oil with properties similar to palm oil aims to help reduce deforestation tied to palm oil production
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
19 February 2019
A historic second world war German submarine off the US coast is being destroyed — thanks to oil released from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill
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
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”
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
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
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
