Stories by Jennifer Frazer

Natural bacterial transformation happens, thanks to sticky, flexible fibers called pili

Enterprising seeds secure preferred real estate by deploying coiled threads

Invertebrate apparel is apparently nonplussed

Worms are living the dream of 400 years of medieval English armies

The world’s only known vertebrate–microbe symbiosis appears to be good for the salamander, but stressful for the alga. So why do they put up with it?

Chewing gum and baking soda not required

Deeply weird but beautifully illustrated new children’s book channels Hieronymous Bosch

Parasitic fungus manipulates bodies and bedroom behavior of hapless insects

The lethal proteins are in the Hard-to-Kill Hall of Fame--and may be more common than we realize

Bacterial big game hunters drill into victims, brace the hole, and then seal the wound behind them

Filmy ferns live up to their name

Tylopilus formosus is all black.

1970 called—it wants its plant playlist back

In which we revisit the hot-button topic of plant intelligence

Unassuming houseplant uses alter ego to get lucky at insects' expense

Discovery “represents a new extreme in organelle complexity” 

For light-loving marine microbes, living in sand means having a good Plan B

Putting plants under may help solve the enduring mystery of how anesthesia works

For majoid crabs, decorating is a way of life

A life form that once ruled the planet has turned up unexpectedly in Tasmania

Microbes contain astounding new organelle of unknown function: the rotatosome

Yet surprisingly, the most common organism in said smoothie was the very pathogen it was trying to prevent

But it can survive pressures that would squash the very proteins of most other life

The hindgut of aquatic insects is a surprisingly hip hangout, filled with microbes bearing resemblances to household objects