Jordana Cepelewicz

Newly discovered worlds of microbes far beneath the ocean floor, inside old basaltic rocks, could point to a greater likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe.

In the fight against viruses and other pathogens, scientists are looking beyond genes and proteins to the complex sugars, or glycans, on cell surfaces.

To stay healthy, humans and some other animals rely on a complex community of bacteria in their guts. But research is starting to show that those partnerships might be more the exception than the rule.

We give our genes and our environment all the credit for making us who we are. But random noise during development might be just as important.

Faced with a decision, the brain weighs its options by bundling them into rapidly alternating cycles of brain waves.

For decades, scientists have been intrigued by tiny viruses whose genetic material can be read both forward and backward. New research begins to explain this puzzling property.

Collaborations in progress between ethicists and biologists seek to head off challenges raised by lab-grown “organoids” as they become increasingly similar to human brain tissue.

The dendritic arms of some human neurons can perform logic operations that once seemed to require whole neural networks.

In evolution, context is everything: Bacteria with neighbors evolve to rebuff viruses in a different way.