Move over, cyanobacteria! A large-scale study of the Earth’s surface ocean indicates the microbes responsible for fixing nitrogen there–previously thought to be almost exclusively photosynthetic cyanobacteria-include an abundant and widely distributed suite of non-photosynthetic bacterial populations. The international study, published this week in Nature Microbiology, was led by A. Murat Eren (Meren) of the University…
Engineers Design Octopus-Inspired “Camouflaging” Material
For the octopus and cuttlefish, instantaneously changing their skin color and pattern to disappear into the environment is just part of their camouflage prowess. These animals can also swiftly and reversibly morph their skin into a textured, 3D surface, giving the animal a ragged outline that mimics seaweed, coral, or other objects it detects and…
Novel Microscope Illuminates Chromosomal ‘Dark Matter’
Using a microscope invented at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), a collaborative team of biologists, instrument developers, and computational scientists has for the first time measured the density of a relatively inscrutable, highly condensed form of chromosomal material that appears in the cells of human beings and other eukaryotes. MBL scientists Michael Shribak (the microscope’s…