Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Microbes, Bacteria, Viruses

The hydrophobic bacteria that coat the ceilings of some dark lava caves produce a gorgeous golden sparkle.

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold

These underground tubes at Lava Beds National Monument include sparkling gold ceilings that even NASA wants to study

As part of a bioweapon experiment, Serratia marcescens (pictured on an agar plate above) was released in San Francisco back in 1950.

In 1950, the U.S. Released a Bioweapon in San Francisco

This was one of hundreds of bioweapon simulations carried out in the 1950s and 1960s

Skin bacteria may have lured in this hungry Aedes aegypti mosquito.

New Research

To Stop Mosquito Bites, Silence Your Skin’s Bacteria

Texas scientists tricked mosquitoes into skipping a blood meal by modifying the way bacteria talk to each other

Evidence (some anecdotal and some clinical) suggests that hookworms could suppress the immune response in people with allergies and other inflammatory diseases.

Cool Finds

Can Hookworms Cure Hayfever?

Maybe. But we need to learn a lot more about them before they hit pharmacy shelves

A stained tissue sample from 1967 reveals the presence of Chlamydia psittaci bacteria.

New Research

The Mystery of the Failed Chlamydia Vaccine

In the 1960s, a vaccine for chlamydia made patients more susceptible to chlamydia. Now scientists know why

Penicillin: a fuzzy little life saver.

11 Reasons to Love Bacteria, Fungi and Spores

From medicines to jet fuel, we have so many reasons to celebrate the microbes we live with every day

A handprint from an eight-year-old boy after he came in from playing outside

Cool Finds

Here’s What Happens When You Culture the Bacteria on an Eight-Year-Old’s Hand

Lots of cooties grow

Capsules of limestone-producing bacteria are embedded in the concrete.

With This Self-Healing Concrete, Buildings Repair Themselves

A concrete developed by Dutch scientists and embedded with limestone-producing bacteria is ready to hit the market

Researchers collected this mixture of plankton – small zooplanktonic animals, larvae and single cell protists – in the Pacific Ocean with a 0.1 mm mesh net.

New Research

How Will Climate Change Impact Plankton?

A global plankton survey aims to help us understand how the tiny organisms that live at the ocean surface will fare in a warming world

Baker's or brewer's yeast, like the sample pictured above, could one day be used for more efficient opiate production.

Engineered Yeast Could Open up a DIY Painkiller Market

The modified microbes could also make cheaper and better opiates

Several Yanomami at the community of Irotatheri, in Venezuela, wait to preform a dance for visiting journalists

New Research

Even an Isolated Amazonian Tribe’s Microbes Are Antibiotic Resistant

The finding of antibiotic resistance in people who have never taken antibiotics highlights how hard it will be to combat superbugs

New Research

Scientists Predict Obesity Rates by Examining Sewage Microbes

The microbial makeup of a city’s sewage can indicate its population’s physique

The colorful salt terraces in the Dallol region of Ethiopia are hot targets for astrobiologists seeking extreme microbial life that could resemble extraterrestrials.

New Research

This Alien Color Catalog May Help Us Spot Life on Other Planets

A digital library of reflectance spectra from microbes could be a powerful tool for spotting signs of extraterrestrials

Bordetella phage BPP-1.

New Drawings Show the Strange Beauty of Phages, the Bacteria Slayers

Phage viruses rearrange genes, prey on bacteria and maintain microbial diversity. Can we harness them to do our bidding?

New Research

Tourist Trash Has Changed the Color of Yellowstone’s Morning Glory Pool

Researchers have found proof of what caused a hot spring’s drastic color modification—it’s people, of course

You can thank these Theobroma cacao flowers for your brownie sundae.

The World of Chocolate

You Wouldn’t Have Chocolate Without Invisible Flies and Extreme Yeast

It takes a wild and temperamental menagerie to bring the beloved candy to store shelves. Bon appétit!

Shewanella oneidensis

Cool Finds

Some Microbes Can Eat And Breathe Electricity

How many ways can life exist? Some recently discovered microbes can live on a cathode, apparently without the need for a carbon food-source

New Research

You Eat Millions…Even Billions!…of Microbes Every Day

Yes, plenty of live microorganisms lurk in your yogurt, but they are everywhere else as well

New Research

A Worm’s Gut Could Help Dispose of Plastic Trash

Microbes found in the guts of waxworms like to feast on polyethylene

New Research

Public Bathroom Bacteria: Not as Gross as You’d Think

Public restrooms are of no more of a health risk than your own home

Page 18 of 21