This post was originally published in “Life of a Lab Rat” on Wednesday 3rd February 2010. Chameleon bacteria This is a picture of a small cyanobacteria under red light: And this is a picture of exactly the same organism under blue-green light: Some cyanobacteria have the ability to change their colour depending on external conditions.
In order to get more information about the forest here at the Sikundur research station in North Sumatra, I've set up four camera traps, which I'm using to get a better look at the wildlife around the site.
Scientists and other nerds love a good cocktail party fact, and one of my favorites for the holidays is that mistletoe is actually a parasite.
A few months ago, scientists revealed that some plucky mosses in Canada managed to do something long thought impossible: survive a 400-year close encounter with the business end of a glacier, and live to sprout another day.
People who lack the gardening bug often regard flowers like fashion models: pretty but boring. Jens Petersen, the man who gave us the groundbreaking photographs of fungi in “The Kingdom of Fungi”, which I reviewed here in March, has a new book of photographs (still available only in Danish, unfortunately, and called Blomsterliv — “Flower [...]
The latest temperature readings from Antarctica are giving the world pause, along with the finding that 70 percent of the western Antarctic ice shelf has melted.
Botanists have long puzzled over a peculiarity of ancient plants called cycads: they have huge, bright, fleshy seeds displayed in enormous cones.
Root fungi may confer dark but useful powers on their plant hosts
The future of coal-fired electricity in the U.S. may be on the line right now in Kansas
Scientists are struggling to get a grasp on the huge volumes of water flowing through the world's oceans
![Blood Clots Are Ready for Their Close-Up [Slide Show]](/sciam/cache/file/8880888A-DEA1-4C2E-ABCE3108E5A15D94_small.jpg)
A new cutting-edge computer simulation of clot formation could improve treatments for stroke and heart attacks
Marine life seems to create a reflective sunshade above the Southern Ocean
Today virtually everything we eat is produced from seeds that have been genetically altered in some way. New methods of plant tinkering have emerged over the generations—and so, too, have the fears
Get used to algae blooms, they may be coming to a body of water near you
Editor's note: For The Lawson Trek, journalist Scott Huler is retracing the journey of discovery undertaken by canoe and on foot in 1700-1701 by John Lawson, the first observer to carefully describe and catalogue the flora, fauna, geography and inhabitants of the Carolinas.
In a video, noted scientists debate the connections between ancient climate changes and the emergence of modern human traits.
Scientists knew neochrome was odd before they started rooting around in its family tree. A union of independent proteins — red-sensing phytochrome and blue-sensing phototropin — the super-protein combines two already-great pieces into one fantastic whole that helps plants grow toward dim, filtered light.
Oh what a difference a few years makes. Just four years ago, the rare California shrub known as the Indian Knob mountain balm (Eriodictyon altissimum) was poised to drop off the endangered species list after the threats to its existence had mostly been abated.
No tree is an island, and no place is this truer than the forest
Sparked by Richard Louv's book on Nature-Deficit Disorder, many organizations, agencies, teachers and the White House have made the push to get people outside for the benefit of their mental and physical health.
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![In Deep Water: Will Essential Ocean Currents Be Altered by Climate Change? [Slide Show]](/sciam/cache/file/7B0EBD53-C6F0-4922-B1368F457BC4CBA3_small.jpg)
