There Are No Small Parts, Only Small Organisms
Microbes are the (mostly) unseen influencers of Earth science, but researchers are learning more about these wee beasties and better appreciating their growing contribution to the world we live in.
Building the Cities of Tomorrow with Living Materials
Construction materials incorporating bacteria, fungi, or other living organisms could self-heal, clean the air, and create more climate-resilient cities.
Life in the Skies Links Ecosystems Near and Far. It Deserves More Attention.
Our understanding of Earth’s biology and its responses to environmental change is limited by an incomplete picture of the planet’s dynamic aerobiome.
A Rare Look at How Life First Colonizes Cooling Lava Tubes
Life finds a way, and when volcanoes form new land, it gets going as soon as temperatures drop to manageable levels—even underground.
Wastewater Can Take Harmful Algal Blooms from Bad to Worse
By modeling toxic diatoms and coastal processes, scientists have discovered the degree to which nutrients from Southern California’s densely populated coast affect these blooms.
Fungi Are Holding the Food Web Together. New Research Images This Underground Network.
By combining computer tomography—the same technology used for medical scans—with a high-powered particle accelerator, researchers have imaged the network of roots, fungal structures, and soil together in their natural environment.
Tiny Cyanobacteria May Be the Secret Heroes of Ocean Carbon Sequestration
Even when larger phytoplankton produce more carbon, much of it is lost on the journey to the ocean floor.