Friends and family kept asking, “Why infectious diseases?” Although their intent was kind, the subtext was constant: why choose a path that is demanding, less lucrative, and often unseen? I had no ...

This story was produced by Grist and co-published with States Newsroom. It is part of the Grist series Vital Signs, exploring the ways climate change affects your health. This reporting initiative is ...

In the depths of Scarisoara cave in Romania sits one of the world’s biggest underground glaciers, a monumental slab of ice the size of roughly 40 Olympic swimming pools that began to form around ...

To build a spacecraft, you need an extremely clean construction zone. That’s essential if you’re sending a robot to another world to search for signs of microscopic alien life. One wouldn’t want to ...

A bioactive compound produced by the microorganism Bacillus licheniformis, found on Deception Island in Antarctica, has properties that qualify it for use in producing food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals ...

With so many coral reefs bleaching and pangolins being poached, it may seem tone-deaf to call for the conservation of species that are too small to see with the naked eye. But that’s exactly what the ...

The infection rate of one type of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales bacteria has risen by more than 460 percent in recent years. Scientists say people receiving treatment in hospitals are at ...

Just southwest of New Orleans, in a tranquil fishing village on the Louisiana bayou, Linard Lyons spent the morning on his 19-foot boat, preparing crab traps for his grandchildren just like he had ...

A rare "flesh-eating bacteria" that lives in warm saltwater has led to at least four deaths this year, but some simple safety precautions can keep you safe while on vacation. The bacteria, Vibrio ...

It is microscopic and rod-shaped, can create spores, and may have evolved to survive hundreds of miles above our planet's surface. This bacterium, never before seen on Earth, was detected on China's ...

In the desert areas of Namibia, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, research work has revealed unusual structures that are probably due to the activity of an unknown microbiological life form. Unusually small ...