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Microbes, Bacteria, Viruses

Artist E. Le Bihan created this depiction of the First Fleet entering Sydney Harbor.

Smallpox Scabs That British Doctors Used to Inoculate Patients May Have Introduced the Deadly Disease to Australia, New Research Suggests

Two new studies find that British colonists arriving via ship in the late 18th century likely introduced smallpox, which devastated Aboriginal communities far more than previously known

Microscope images of an artificial cell, colored green, dividing into two

Scientists Say They’ve Made Cells That Feed, Grow and Reproduce, Bringing Them One Step Closer to Building Life From Scratch

The human-made cells show many hallmarks of life, but they can’t make all their necessary internal structures or divide for very many generations

The scientists got permission to defrost the mummified remains.

Scientists Made Sourdough Bread With Yeast Found on Ötzi the Iceman’s Mummified Body

Discovered in the Alps in 1991, the remains are home to a wide variety of bacteria, fungi and yeasts

Two members of the Médecins Sans Frontières Ebola response team outside a hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo

These Experimental Ebola Treatments and Vaccines Might Help Slow the Outbreak Spreading in Congo and Uganda, WHO Says

No approved therapeutics exist for the virus species causing the outbreak, which has been associated with more than 1,000 cases of Ebola. The World Health Organization has identified several therapeutics to test in clinical trials in the coming months

A mosquito drinking blood from a bag, accessible through mesh

Could Bug Spray Attract Mosquitoes? Lab Insects Learned That the Smell of DEET Would Lead Them to a Tasty Treat

Researchers don’t know how the findings might overlap with real-world settings. But the discovery suggests that we’re most vulnerable when our insect repellent is wearing off, meaning we should reapply it regularly

Scientists carried out their experiments in the bacterium Escherichia coli. Cells of the species are artificially colored blue in this microscope image.

Scientists Used A.I. to Redesign a Microbe’s Machinery to Function Without a Key Ingredient of Life

Although the researchers did not create an entire cell that could function without a crucial building block, the findings represent a big step in synthetic biology and provide a glimpse at how Earth’s earliest organisms may have lived

A visitor washes his hands before entering a hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of Ebola prevention measures.

The Ebola Outbreak in Africa Was Declared a Global Health Emergency by the WHO. Here’s What to Know About the Rare but Severe Illness

The international health agency notes that the outbreak does not meet the criteria for a pandemic, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the risk to the American public is low

A shell that protected the Perseverance rover during its descent to Mars in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This Microscopic Fungus Survived NASA’s Sterilization Protocols—and Is Potentially Hardy Enough to Contaminate Mars

The microbe was gathered from the agency’s clean rooms, where experts build spacecraft in carefully controlled environments. The findings reveal gaps in the agency’s procedures to prevent durable hitchhikers

Cattle are a major driver of methane emissions.

Why Do Cows Burp Up So Much Planet-Warming Methane? A Newly Discovered Structure in Their Gut Microbes Could Be a Culprit

The “hydrogenobody” is an organelle inside certain microorganisms that live in a special stomach chamber in cattle, sheep and goats, according to a new study

An artist’s illustration of the exoplanet HD 219134 b, a rocky world about 21 light-years from Earth. This scorching planet, which orbits extremely close to its host star, might have a partially molten surface and volcanoes.

Alien Life Could Look Nothing Like What We Expect. Here’s How Microbes Beyond Earth Might Live Without Liquid Water

Like the lead character of “Project Hail Mary,” some scientists are proposing ways that life might exist beyond a star’s “habitable zone,” often considered the gold standard of potential livability

Courses of the antibiotic clindamycin taken within a year before stool sampling were associated with the largest changes in gut microbiomes.

Some Antibiotic Drugs Can Alter Your Gut Microbiome for Up to Eight Years, New Research Suggests

Just a single course of treatment can leave a lasting impression, according to a study of nearly 15,000 people in Sweden

Like Astrophage, the solar-radiation-eating microbes in Andy Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary, some sea slugs can derive energy from sunlight.

These Sea Slugs Can ‘Eat’ Sunlight—but They’re No Astrophage. Here’s How the ‘Project Hail Mary’ Antagonist Has a Real-Life Analogue in Earth’s Oceans

By snatching chloroplasts from algae, animals called sacoglossans produce their own energy through photosynthesis

Swimmable Cities is a global alliance of local government officials, experts and advocates working to make urban waterways clean enough to swim in.

Would You Jump Into Your Local River? Swimmable Cities May Be Within Reach as Once-Polluted Waterways Are Restored

Efforts to improve the “swimmability” of urban areas are gaining global traction, from Paris to Chicago

Some scientists suspect that microorganisms can hop between planets by jumping aboard debris kicked up by asteroid strikes.

Could Life on Earth Have Descended From Microbes That Traveled From Mars Long Ago?

Scientists demonstrated that an Earthly extremophile might withstand being ejected from the Red Planet on debris spewed into space due to an asteroid strike

Researchers developed a tiny fart-measuring device that snaps into underwear. 

How Often Do You Fart? This ‘Smart Underwear’ Can Keep Track, Because Figuring Out a Baseline Is Important for Science

Researchers have launched a study to find a typical range for flatulence, which has been harder to measure than you might expect

For their scale, these microbes are faster and more resilient than any human athlete.

If Microbes Entered the Olympics, These One-Celled Superstars Would Win Gold

They race, they spin, they shoot. Meet the organisms for which physical prowess is more than sport—it’s a matter of life and death

Treponema pallidum is a spiral-shaped bacterium that currently exists in three closely related forms, one of which causes syphilis. 

Anthropologists Recover DNA of Syphilis-Causing Bacterium Relative From 5,500-Year-Old Human Remains, the Earliest Ever Found

The findings represent the oldest complete set of genetic information from this bacterial group and shed light on its evolutionary history

Ötzi the Iceman is housed at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, where conservationists periodically humidify his remains.

Ötzi the Iceman May Have Carried a Cancer-Causing Strain of HPV, a Common Virus Still Plaguing Humans Today

A new study, which also found evidence of the high-risk strain in 45,000-year-old remains, suggests HPV has evolved alongside humans for many millennia

Europa, one of Jupiter's moons

Jupiter’s Moon Europa Is a Top Candidate for Hosting Alien Life. But It May Lack the Geologic Activity Needed to Birth Microbes

On Earth, deep-sea vents may have given rise to the planet’s first life. But nothing of the sort seems to be happening at the bottom of Europa’s ocean, a study suggests

A microscope image of HIV particles, in red, replicating from an infected cell, in blue.

A New Trial Put Immune System-Boosting Therapies to the Test to Fight HIV, Raising Hopes for Keeping the Virus at Bay

In the small study, seven out of ten participants maintained low levels of HIV for several months after receiving the experimental treatment and stopping their usual daily medications

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