Researchers have discovered how bacteria break through spaces barely larger than themselves, by wrapping their flagella around their bodies and moving forward. Using a microfluidic device that mimics ...

Cells are the basic building blocks of life—the smallest units that can do all the jobs a living thing needs. Most cells fit into two groups: prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The most significant ...

Researchers have identified a previously unknown species of unicellular organism in seawater collected near Hachijojima Island. The newly discovered species, named Viscidocauda repens, belongs to the ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Endomyxa comprises a diverse range of protists, including intracellular parasites that infect animals and plants, as well as free-living amoebae that do not rely on a host. Until now, ...

Royalty-free licenses let you pay once to use copyrighted images and video clips in personal and commercial projects on an ongoing basis without requiring additional payments each time you use that ...

Modern biology textbooks assert that only bacteria can take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into a form that is usable for life. Plants that fix nitrogen, such as legumes, do so by ...

How well bacteria move and sense their environment directly affects their success in surviving and spreading. About half of known bacteria species use a flagella to move — a rotating appendage that ...

Abstract: Prokaryotic flagellum is considered as the only known example of a biological “wheel,” a system capable of converting the action of rotatory actuator into a continuous propulsive force. For ...

Hermes Bloomfield-Gadêlha receives funding from EPSRC. Alan Turing might be best known for his work helping to crack Germany’s “Enigma” communications code during the second world war. But he also ...

Illustration by Jared Bartman / The Atlantic. Source: Alamy. It survives, for example, by producing “copious amounts” of an enzyme that neutralizes stomach acid, Richard Peek, a gastroenterologist at ...