Antibiotics are no longer able to treat infections as effectively as they once did because many pathogens have developed ...

Viruses and their hosts—whether bacteria, animals, or humans—are locked in a constant evolutionary arms race. Cells evolve ...

In the vast and often unseen world of microscopic life, a recent discovery may force scientists to rethink what it means to be alive. Nestled inside a tiny plankton cell, researchers found a ...

The so-called “circle of life” dictates that if a living thing exists, it’s probably food for something else. Viruses, however, have historically managed to escape this unofficial rule. Although ...

They’re gorgeous, dazzling, passionately pursued, and worth billions.

Researchers have developed VIRE, a database that integrates approximately 1.7 million viral genomes derived from more than ...

Teeny, single-cell creatures floating in the ocean may be the first organisms ever confirmed to eat viruses. Scientists scooped up the organisms, known as protists, from the surface waters of the Gulf ...

While you probably aren’t going to get sick from just being outside in all this microbe rain, pathogenic organisms are ...

When some bacteria manage to escape being killed by a virus, the microbes end up hamstringing themselves. And that could be useful in the fight to treat infections. “We’re kind of expecting phage ...

The most common organism in the world's oceans -- and possibly the whole planet -- harbors a virus in its DNA. This virus may have helped it survive and outcompete other organisms. The most common ...

A new study finds that viruses share some genes exclusively with cells that are not their hosts. The study adds to the evidence that viruses swap genes with a variety of cellular organisms and are ...