Much of life on planet Earth today relies on oxygen to exist, but before oxygen was present on our blue planet, lifeforms likely used arsenic instead. These findings are detailed in research published today in Communications ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 22, 2020
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151
Enzymes are molecules that catalyze metabolism. Discovering and mining enzymes, such as those producing oils or fixing carbon dioxide, have been a key mission of the biotechnology industry. However, this can be very slow ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 10, 2020
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196
The seemingly chaotic bacterial soup of the gut microbiome is more organized than it first appears and follows some of the same ecological laws that apply to birds, fish, tropical rainforests, and even complex economic and ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 13, 2020
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152
A new study shows that "hotspots" of nutrients surrounding phytoplankton—which are tiny marine algae producing approximately half of the oxygen we breathe every day—play an outsized role in the release of a gas involved ...
Environment
Apr 23, 2020
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198
Microbial communities are known to be indispensable for our planet. But surprisingly little is known about how they function. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and ETH Zurich are ...
Ecology
Feb 11, 2020
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83
When you hear about the biological processes that influence climate and the environment, such as carbon fixation or nitrogen recycling, it's easy to think of them as abstract and incomprehensibly large-scale phenomena. Yet ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 7, 2019
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28
More than 10 miles into the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park, on the edge of the caldera, lives a high-elevation community so diverse that Montana State University scientists call it "incredible, unique and truly ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 27, 2019
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230
Ecological processes govern seasonal changes in microbial communities living along rivers in the hyporheic zone, where groundwater and surface water mix. These processes have been well-studied in plant and animal communities. ...
Ecology
Dec 1, 2016
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4
A new mathematical model developed at the University of British Columbia integrates environmental and molecular sequence information to better explain how microbial networks drive nutrient and energy cycling in marine ecosystems.
Environment
Sep 22, 2016
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16
The search for life beyond Earth is one of the grandest endeavors in the history of humankind—a quest that could transform our understanding of our universe both scientifically and spiritually.
Space Exploration
Sep 30, 2015
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