Micro-organisms

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.

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.”

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Even though it's vitally important to check drinking water sources for pollutants, some places lack the facilities for performing such tests. A new system could help, as it uses a smartphone camera to check up on tiny aquatic organisms.

Scientists have revived microscopic animals that had been frozen in the Siberian permafrost for 24,000 years. The Bdelloid rotifers, or “wheel animals,” went right back to moving, eating and reproducing like the Ice Age was only yesterday.

Scientists have discovered the fossil of what may be the earliest multicellular animal ever found. Dating back a billion years, the microscopic fossil contains two distinct cell types, potentially making it an ancestor to advanced animals.