Micro-organisms
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Our bodies are home to trillions of microbes, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and a whole host of others. Now, Stanford scientists have discovered an entirely new class of biological entities inside us, which they’ve ominously named “Obelisks.”
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A 15-year project trying to build a synthetic yeast genome has hit a major milestone – yeast cells with more than 50% synthetic DNA for the first time. The team created synthetic versions of almost all its chromosomes plus a completely new one.
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From an igniting match to a mouse embryo and a micrometeorite, the winners of the annual Nikon Small World photomicrography competition have been unveiled. As always, this year’s stunning images capture the wonder of the tiny hidden universe around us.
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It sounds like a disaster movie: scientists recently revived worms frozen in the permafrost since the Ice Age. Now, these worms have been attributed to a new species, and seem to have passed down their incredible hibernation genes to modern relatives.
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How small a canvas can evolution work on? Scientists have experimented with a synthetic lifeform designed to have the simplest possible genome, and found that given the chance it can evolve lost fitness back, showing that indeed, “life finds a way.”
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Scientists have discovered evidence of a “lost world” of previously unknown lifeforms that inhabited Earth about a billion years ago. Fossilized steroids were identified in rocks all over the world, produced by a group called the "Protosterol Biota."
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Scientists are conducting a long-term experiment on evolution to investigate how single-celled organisms could evolve into multicellular lifeforms. After thousands of generations, their yeast grew 20,000 times bigger and 10,000 times tougher.
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Newly discovered cold-adapted microorganisms "eat" plastic at temperatures lower than currently required. The discovery is the first step towards developing a more effective industrial-scale method of ridding the planet of plastic pollution.
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Name a type of organic matter and chances are some type of organism has evolved to eat it. Plants, meat, algae, insects and bacteria are all consumed by different creatures, but now scientists have discovered something new on the menu – viruses.
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Scientists have discovered a completely new branch on the tree of life. This “supergroup” contains an incredibly diverse range of predatory microbes that are extremely different genetically from any other form of life on Earth.
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Japanese scientists have engineered the smallest lifeform that can move on its own. The team introduced bacterial proteins that enable movement into a simple synthetic bacterium that normally cannot move, causing it to change shape and become mobile.
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Biologists have discovered the largest bacterium ever found, with a single cell measuring a mammoth 2 cm long. Visible to the naked eye, this new species has bizarre characteristics that make it like a missing link in the evolution of complex cells.
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