Tag Archives: Microbe

Earth wouldn’t be the lively place it is without photosynthesis, which harnesses solar energy to fuel most of the planet’s food webs. A variety of plants, algae, and cyanobacteria provide this service, but few do it quite like Prochlorococcus, considered to be Earth’s most abundant photosynthetic organism. Tiny even for cyanobacteria, this marine microbe wields outsized influence in its habitats …

Extremophiles are a favorite tool of astrobiologists. But not only are they good for understanding the kinds of extreme environments that life can survive in, sometimes they are useful as actual tools, creating materials necessary for other life – like oxygen – in those extreme environments. A recent paper from Daniella Billi of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, published …

Explore Scientists recently discovered a microbe with one of the tiniest genomes on Earth. More surprising, the creature is almost entirely dependent on its host: Its genes don’t support any of the functions of metabolism, one of the key processes of life. As such, it challenges fundamental notions of what it means to be a living organism. The discovery was …

Scientists Finally Identify Killer Microbe Behind ‘Terrifying’ Sea Star Disease  The New York Times Vibrio pectenicida strain FHCF-3 is a causative agent of sea star wasting disease  Nature Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars  Yahoo Home Scientists say they’ve solved the mystery of starfish that turn to goo  The Washington Post Billions of West …