Microbiology

Cells intuitively avoided dead-ends when released into microscopic mazes. Here’s how. FOR A SINGLE CELL, the human body is a gargantuan maze of tissues, chemicals and capillaries, crammed full with trillions of other cells all bustling about like commuters at the world’s busiest train…

It has only 473 genes, and many of them are a complete mystery. SCIENTISTS on Thursday announced the creation of a synthetic organism stripped down to the bare essentials with the fewest genes needed to survive and multiply, a feat at the microscopic level that may provide big insights on the very nature…

SCIENTISTS have discovered water flowing on the surface of Mars. (ILLUSTRATION: Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft.) The discovery announced Monday raises the tantalizing possibility…

SCIENTISTS who discovered a prehistoric virus called Mollivirus sibericum in the Siberian permafrost plan to give the virus its first wakeup call since the last Ice Age (after first verifying that it can’t harm humans and animals, thankfully). It’s hoped the study could shed insight…

IT SOUNDS like a prime conspiracy theory, and indeed if you type it into Google that’s a lot of what you find, but for a period of at least 20 years, the U.S. army carried out simulated open-air biological warfare attacks – on their own cities. In the wake of World War II, the United Sates military was suddenly…