microbes

In order to build a second Earth, we need to look at how the first one was made.

Here are the leading solutions to antibiotic resistance, the next major global health threat.

We may not find Klingons, but what we do find will blow our terrestrial minds.

A French study of nearly 70,000 people yielded startling results for two forms of cancer.

Delivered together, the two join forces to eradicate drug-resistant bacteria.

As mankind raises its eyes to Mars and asks, "How do we get there?", we might need to ask, "Should we go?". Carl Sagan said we may not be entitled to visit a potentially inhabited planet.

Our picture of life is going through a major shift. Ed Yong's book I Contain Multitudes reveals that a genome generally doesn’t contain all the genes an organism needs. Symbiosis isn’t rare, it's the rule. And we're just the icing on life's vast microbial cake. 

The Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, wiped out 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population between 1347 and 1351. But, this is just the most infamous of the little microbe's shenanigans. Y. pestis, which is one-millionth our size, has caused three major pandemics and continues killing people to this very day. The plague gets such a bad rap because it represents some of the greatest tragedies to ever befall the human race.

My grandfather used to keep all sorts of things in the trunk of his car: Fishing gear, duct tape, aluminum foil, a large chain, a defused WWII hand grenade. When we asked why he squirreled away such a random assortment of items, he would shrug and say, "Just in case." That, in a nutshell, is why we should never destroy the smallpox virus. Just in case we need it someday.

Editor’s Note: This article was provided by our partner, RealClearScience. The original is here. Ebola is one of the scariest viruses on Earth. Along with Marburg and a few other […]