How much carbon can the ocean absorb, and what happens to it as the planet warms? Sonya Dyhrman, a microbial oceanographer and professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is trying to answer these ...

Scientists aboard the Tara Pacific expedition have cataloged thousands of previously unknown microbial species living inside ...

In the oceans and on land, scientists are discovering rare, transitional organisms that bridge the gap between Earth’s simplest cells and today’s complex ones.

Soil microbes remain highly active beneath winter snow, driving complex nitrogen recycling that fuels spring plant growth.

Robyn Barbato, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, drills into subsurface permafrost at the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility in Fox, Alaska.

Microbes move across the planet, linking ecosystems and spreading genes that shape antibiotic resistance, health, and biodiversity.

Like wine and cheese, chocolate has terroir, a sense of the place it was grown. Each bonbon or bar may carry unique flavors shaped by the soil, rainfall and temperature of the farm. But much of that ...

Beneath our feet, beyond the reach of sunlight, and buried in the most unforgiving corners of the planet, an unseen world thrives. Though these environments may seem desolate, and devoid of warmth, ...

Every grower wants bigger buds. Healthy plants. The kind of trichomes that glisten, with terpene and cannabinoid content that deliver the perfect full-spectrum high. That’s the goal, whether your ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. These bacteria don’t eat food or breathe air like we do.