Articles for tag: environmental changes, Geology, Great Salt Lake, Microbial Life, Scientific Discoveries

The Great Salt Lake's Secret: What Scientists Found Beneath It

The Great Salt Lake’s Secret: What Scientists Found Beneath It

Gargi Chakravorty

You might think you know everything about the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, but the Great Salt Lake has been keeping secrets hidden for thousands of years. Picture stumbling across mysterious islands that shouldn’t exist, sprouting up from the lake’s shrinking bed like something out of a science fiction novel. That’s exactly what ...

a wooden bridge over a stream of water

The “Boiling Lake” That’s Alive With Microbes

Suhail Ahmed

Steam rakes the crater rim, the water heaves like an animal breathing, and the air tastes faintly metallic. Volcanic “boiling lakes” look impossibly hostile, yet they are busy with life – microbes that shrug at scalding heat and acid. The mystery is both simple and profound: how do cells hold together where most biology falls ...

The Microbial Life Thriving in Earth's Deepest Caves

The Microbial Life Thriving in Earth’s Deepest Caves

Gargi Chakravorty

You stand at the edge of darkness, peering into the depths of Earth where sunlight has never touched stone. Far beneath your feet lies a hidden world that challenges everything you thought you knew about life itself. In these forgotten realms, microscopic pioneers have carved out an existence so extraordinary that it redefines the very ...

Glaciers Reveal Ancient Microbial Life in Alaska

Glaciers Reveal Ancient Microbial Life in Alaska

Gargi Chakravorty

Deep beneath Alaska’s frozen ground, a remarkable discovery has shaken the scientific world. Microorganisms that have been dormant for tens of thousands of years are now being awakened from their icy slumber, offering unprecedented insights into how our warming planet might unleash ancient forces from the past. These microscopic time travelers, preserved ‘s permafrost like ...

a close up of an orange and blue substance

Tiny Titans: The Microorganisms That Can Save Our World

Jan Otte

People have ignored the most powerful forces that shape our world for hundreds of years because they can’t be seen. Microorganisms, which are too small to see, have been quietly controlling our climate, feeding our soils, and even changing the course of human evolution. Scientists are now looking to these tiny friends for answers as ...

A female scientist in protective gear examines samples through a microscope in a laboratory setting.

NASA Newly Discovered Cleanroom Microbes Could Survive Space and Revolutionize Earth

Jan Otte

Far in NASA’s super-sterile cleanrooms where spacecraft are assembled carefully to not infect other planets, researchers have made a staggering discovery: 26 new, undiscovered species of bacteria flourishing where nearly everything should perish. The microbes, impervious to extreme forms of sterilization, hold genetic information that might re-engineer biotechnology, medicine, and even our definition of life ...