15-03-13 Many animals, including humans, acquired essential 'foreign' genes from microorganisms co-habiting their environment in ancient times, according to research published in the open access journal Genome Biology. The study challenges conventional views...

15-01-22 The creation of genetically modified and entirely synthetic organisms continues to generate excitement as well as worry. Such organisms are already churning out insulin and other drug ingredients, helping produce biofuels, teaching scientists about...

14-05-04 In the movies, humans often fear invaders from Mars. These days, scientists are more concerned about invaders to Mars, in the form of micro-organisms from Earth. Three recent scientific papers examined the risks of interplanetary exchange of organis...

14-01-05 Scientists have demonstrated that organisms with greater complexity are more likely to evolve in complex environments, according to research published this week in PLOS Computational Biology. The researchers, based at cole Polytechnique Fdrale de La...

13-12-10 Scientists are digging deep into Earth's surface collecting census data on the microbial denizens（居民） of the hardened rocks. What they're finding is that, even miles deep and halfway across the globe, many of these communities are somehow quite...

13-10-16 Nearly every body of water, from a puddle or a pond to a vast ocean, contains microscopic organisms that live attached to rocks, plants, and animals. These so-called sessile（固着的） suspension feeders are critical to aquatic ecosystems and play an...

11-01-31 Scientists at the Institut Pasteur and the University of Maryland have revealed how bacterial and archaea（古生菌） microbes successfully evolve their gene repertoires（全部节目） to face new challenges, predominantly by acquiring genes from other i...

10-04-09 Deep under the Mediterranean Sea small animals have been discovered that live their entire lives without oxygen and surrounded by 'poisonous' sulphides（硫化物） . Researchers writing in the open access（开架阅览） journal BMC Biology report the exi...