Archive for microbe

What do you think should be your state’s official microorganism?

April 17, 2013 Io9, microbe, Open channel, Oregon, saccharomyces cerevisiae, Sci, Science, state microbe

Oregon wants to make brewer's yeast its official state microbe. Also known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the unicellular organism is perhaps best known for its use in brewing beer. This, of course, begs the question: what would your official state microbe be?

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Toxic algae species is full of freeloading cheaters… and why that makes them even deadlier

January 20, 2013 algae, biology, Cheating, Fb, Io9, microbe, Sci, Science, tweet
Prymnesium parvum is a single-celled, toxic algae species that wreaks havoc throughout U.S. waters. The toxin is designed to wipe out their competition for sunlight and nutrients... but for some reason, some of the algae don't bother producing toxins. More »


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Was Earth’s most devastating mass extinction caused by a single microbe?

December 16, 2012 biology, Fb, Io9, MASS EXTINCTION, methane, microbe, Permian, Sci, Science, tweet
That's the intriguing new hypothesis put forward to explain the Permian mass extinction, which wiped out more than 90% of all Earth's species 251 million years ago. And we even know which microbe is responsible for this omnicidal annihilation. More »


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The microbes in Earth’s most arid volcanoes are unlike anything we’ve seen before [Biology]

June 10, 2012 Atacama, biology, Fb, geology, Io9, microbe, Photosynthesis, Sci, Science, Top, tweet
The unimaginably arid conditions of South America's Atacama Desert have mad it the perfect scientific stand-in for Mars. So in a place that is quite literally almost alien, it makes sense we'd find microbes as strange as these. More »
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The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs might have created life in other solar systems [Space]

April 15, 2012 asteroid, Astronomy, biology, Exogenesis, Fb, Io9, meteor, microbe, panspermia, Sci, Science, Space, Top, tweet
Exogenesis is the theory that the building blocks for life came from elsewhere in the universe. The trouble is it doesn't explain where those building blocks came from in the first place. But new calculations suggest one intriguing source: Earth. More »
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Earth’s atmosphere has repeatedly been choked in a thick methane haze [Geology]

March 19, 2012 Atmosphere, cyanobacteria, earth, Fb, geology, Io9, methane, microbe, Oxygen, Sci, Science, Titan, tweet
2.5 billion years ago, the Sun was basically invisible from the Earth's surface. Microbes in the oceans pumped methane into the atmosphere, creating a giant cloud of smog that covered the entire planet. Yes, the whole world turned into LA. More »
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The Extremest Extremophiles: Microbial oasis underneath Earth’s driest desert could be great news for life on Mars [Biology]

February 19, 2012 astrobiology, Atacama, Atacama Desert, Bacteria, biology, Chile, Io9, Life on Mars, Mars, microbe, Organism, Sci, Science, Top
For the last twenty million years, Chile's Atacama Desert has been the driest, most inhospitable place on Earth. But deep below the surface of this unimaginably arid world, microbes are flourishing without even oxygen or sunlight. Meet the extremest extremophiles. More »
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New study is very bad news for arsenic-based life [Debunkery]

January 23, 2012 Arsenic, biology, Chemistry, Debunkery, Dna, Io9, microbe, Mono Lake, Nasa, Sci, Science
In late 2010, NASA scientists announced the discovery of microbes in California's Mono Lake that used arsenic instead of phosphorus in their DNA. The study quickly came under intense criticism — and now we may be about to refute it entirely. More »
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The next NASA rover could bring the first microbes to Mars [Life On Mars]

September 7, 2011 astrobiology, Astronomy, Bacteria, Io9, Life on Mars, Mars, Mars Science Laboratory, microbe, Nasa, Science, Top
There's no way to be absolutely certain, but we're pretty sure that no germs have ever survived the grueling journey from Earth to Mars. But the latest rover to explore the Red Planet might just take along some microscopic colonists. More »
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Deep-sea mussels are living hydrogen fuel cells [Biology]

August 15, 2011 Bacteria, biology, Energy, Hydrogen, hydrothermal vent, Io9, microbe, mussel, Science, Symbiosis
We're still trying to figure out how to properly harness the power of hydrogen as a clean energy source — and now we might be able to pick up some unexpected pointers from some bizarre symbiotic bacteria found at the ocean depths. More »
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