Two-thirds of the world's biodiversity lives in the soil

Coral reefs, the deep sea or the treetops of the rainforests are considered the main hotspots of biodiversity. However, they all trail behind the soils. According to a new study, soils are the most species-rich ecosystems ...

How a worm's embryonic cells change its development potential

Researchers have spotted how specific proteins within the chromosomes of roundworms enable their offspring to produce specialized cells generations later, a startling finding that upends classical thinking that hereditary ...

Physical theory describes movements of micro-hairs

They are only very simple structures, but without them we could not survive: Countless tiny hairs (cilia) are found on the outer wall of some cells, for example in our lungs or in our brain. When these micrometer-sized hairs ...

Yellow pigment keeps social amoebae together

The multicellular stage of the amoeba Dicyostelium discoideum is partially regulated by an intensely yellow natural substance, as researchers of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology—Hans ...

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