Near-weightless conditions can mutate genes and alter the physical structures of bacteria and phages, disrupting their normal ...

Antibiotic resistance is a global health challenge that could overtake cancer mortality within a few decades. In a new study, researchers at Umeå University, Sweden, show that the emergence of ...

For the research, scientists compared samples incubated on Earth and on the International Space Station.

On the ISS, viruses can still infect bacteria, but the process slows and pushes both organisms to evolve along different ...

Viruses that infect bacteria can still do their job in microgravity, but space changes the rules of the fight.

The International Space Station (ISS) is one of the most unique environments where life has ever existed, out in the low ...

Pseudomonas bacteria infected by different mutations of a jumbo phage. The dot in the middle is the shield created by the phage to protect its DNA after it has infected the bacterial cell. Image by ...

The idea that a single-celled bacterium can defend itself against viruses in a similar way as the 1.8-trillion-cell human immune system is still “mind-blowing” for molecular biologist Joshua W. Modell ...

Scientists estimate that the earliest biological entities began to appear on Earth more than 4 billion years ago. "There was a sort of primordial soup from which certain organic molecules were formed.

As a general rule, most people want to avoid viruses, which are at the root of illnesses like colds, the flu, chickenpox and many a stomach bug. But what about a virus that doesn’t make people sick — ...

Jumbo phages belong to a group of viruses that attack bacteria. They inject their DNA and then reproduce by taking over the cell’s DNA-copying machinery. Eventually, a phage makes so many copies of ...