Unlike measles, Influenza requires a fresh shot of vaccines every year. But why?

Designer Suzanne Lee shares her experiments in growing a kombucha-based material that can be used like fabric or vegetable leather to make clothing. The process is fascinating, the results are beautiful (though there's still one minor...

We might order fish raw, but why don't we ever order chicken that way?

When the ocean changes, the planet changes -- and it all starts with microbes, says biological oceanographer Angelicque White. Backed by decades of data, White shares how scientists use these ancient microorganisms as a crucial barometer...

Bacteria have evolved some pretty incredible abilities. They may never star in a big summer movie, but here are six bacteria with amazing superpowers.

Today we are talking about 3 scientists who, through their collective inventions and discoveries, have saved millions of lives.

Current medical treatment boils down to six words: Have disease, take pill, kill something. But physician Siddhartha Mukherjee points to a future of medicine that will transform the way we heal.

Behold the microscopic jungle in and around you: tiny organisms living on your cheeks, under your sofa and in the soil in your backyard. We have an adversarial relationship with these microbes -- we sanitize, exterminate and disinfect...

Every day, humans literally flush a valuable resource down the toilet: nitrogen. But there are some animals that have figured out a way to recycle the extra nitrogen in their bodies by moving it not to their livers, but to their mouths!

Asking questions almost always leads to finding answers, but those answers will often pose even more questions. Here are five mysteries started and later solved by science.

Bacteria "talk" to each other, sending chemical information to coordinate attacks. What if we could listen to what they were saying? Nanophysicist Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi invented a tool to spy on bacterial chatter and translate...

Toxic waste, by definition, is harmful to living things, but there are actually a bunch of plants, animals, fungi, and microbes that can help us clean it up! Chapters OYSTER MUSHROOMS 0:49 SUNFLOWERS 3:06 3 BIVALVES 5:11 BONFIRE MOSS...

While you probably aren’t going to get sick from just being outside in all this microbe rain, pathogenic organisms ARE raining down on us all the time, everywhere!

The ground beneath your feet is home to a massive, mysterious world of microbes -- some of which have been in the earth's crust for hundreds of thousands of years. What's it like down there? Take a trip to the volcanoes and hot springs...

On top of our heads, there is a type of yeast that lives and dines on all of our scalps. Feasting constantly, it's in paradise. And in about half of the human population, its activity causes dandruff. So, why do some people have more...

From nourishing our foods to storing massive amounts of carbon, soil is teeming with diverse microbial life that could slow global warming. Climate change scientist Jane Zelikova calls for agricultural practices that protect Earth's soil...

Is there life on Venus? Quantum astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva makes the case for a new way to seek and possibly discover habitable planets -- and shares her research into a poisonous, smelly molecule that might signal life beyond Earth.

Hoboro Island off the coast of Japan may soon be an island of the past, and it’s primarily due to one unsuspecting isopod.

Why Do We Eat Spoiled Food

No Judging: At one point you've probably put a finger in your ear and dug out some rather unsightly ear wax, but why does your body produce this yellowy substance in the first place?

Researchers have found ancient communities of microbes that have been buried deep, for a hundred million years! This discovery might be the oldest living thing on Earth, and could even expand the search for life on other planets.

When a team of archeologists recently came across some 15,000-year-old human remains, they made an interesting discovery: the teeth of those ancient humans were riddled with holes. So what causes cavities, and how can we avoid them? Mel...

From the microbes in our stomachs to the ones on our teeth, we are homes to millions of unique and diverse communities which help our bodies function. Jessica Green and Karen Guillemin emphasize the importance of understanding the many...

Humans have been using microbes to separate minerals from mud since the middle of the last century, so we know biomining works on earth. But how will these tiny miners work in microgravity?