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A single genetic change and some clever geometry show how single-celled organisms can band together to form cooperative multicellular entities.
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi.
Only a few genetic changes were enough to change an ordinary stomach bug into the bacteria responsible for the plague.
The soil teems with billions of hidden microbes. Researchers have begun to catalog how these organisms are changing the world.
In the few decades since viruses were first found in the oceans, scientists have only been able to identify a handful of species. A new survey has uncovered nearly all the rest.
Interest in a powerful DNA editing tool called CRISPR has revealed that bacteria are far more sophisticated than anyone imagined.
A massive statistical study suggests that even though genetic changes happen at random, the final evolutionary outcome — fitness — is predictable.
Bacteria may have helped single-celled organisms make the leap to multicellular animals.
Newly discovered patterns in evolution may help scientists make accurate short-term predictions.