Microbial Treasure

Meet some of the people featured in the June 2018 issue of The Scientist.

We should take comfort in the fact that life on Earth had such unassuming, shared beginnings.

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.

Some beetle species may have evolved to tunnel into the ground to escape the pathogens that abound on dead and rotting animals.

The bat version of the STING protein helps dampen the mammals' immune response to infection, researchers have found.

Scientists are searching for signatures of mammals within the blood meals of the invertebrates.

Experiments to cultivate greens on the International Space Station and in simulated Martian environments pave the way for feeding crews during deep space missions.

The ancient organisms appear to be more closely related to eukaryotes than previously appreciated.

Soil scientists use a gas-producing reporter system to assess gene activity in bacteria.

Identification of new archaea species elucidates the domain’s unique  biology and sheds light on its relationship to eukaryotes.

By observing the activity of a protein complex in real time, researchers have uncovered new evidence for a long-standing theory.

By combining experimental data with computer models, researchers were able to predict a pathogen’s evolution toward more virulence.

During the last ice age, there wasn’t much plant matter to eat on northern steppes, but herbivorous woolly mammoths were abundant. How did they survive?

The University of Michigan neuroscientist has developed therapies for patients with PTSD and laboratory models to understand its basis.

An entrepreneurial attitude helped this Vienna-based researcher begin to unravel the complex receptor network that Arabidopsis uses to develop and defend itself.

Synthetic and natural alternatives to traditional antibodies offer more control, specificity, and reproducibility. 

The IoT can link up many facets of research—from laboratory equipment to ideas—but scientists must be ready for the questions its implementation could raise.

Rather, DNA sequencing can help us parse our ancestry, a subtle but important distinction.

Austrian-American botanist Joseph Rock collected thousands of plant samples in his 27 years in the Middle Kingdom, leaving after the Communist Party’s takeover.