John Bonner, the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology, Emeritus, whose influential work with cellular slime molds shed light on the mechanisms of microbial life and illuminated the behavior of cells ...

Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are worm-like parasites of the genus Meloidogyne that are found in many parts of the world. They attack the roots of plants, causing them to wilt and eventually die. It is ...

What is slime mold and what should you do about it? originally appeared on Dengarden. If you’ve recently made the (mildly horrifying) discovery of a slimy growth in your mulch that looks like ...

I probably shouldn’t get quite so excited about the life I find in my wood pile. I was all set to write about baby turtles this week when, while neatening up the debris from last year’s wood pile, I ...

We are traveling in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Forest ecologist Steve Stephenson bends over a decaying stump and parts a curtain of moss so I can see a tiny stand of what looks like ...

The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil microbe that produces diverse natural products with potential antibiotic activity. Previously, three chlorinated compounds had been detected ...

From the top of the mountain a faint trail, probably a game trail maintained by deer, led down the north-facing slope to a shady, moist area. Several blackened logs, probably from an unsanctioned ...

Humans have the largest brains of any creature on the Earth, so we are always using our brains and thinking about solutions to problems. Scientists have wondered how organisms that lack a brain can ...

A starry midsummer night in 1957. Two teenagers, Steve Andrews and Jane Martin, are parked on a quiet rural hillside outside the small town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, not far from Valley Forge.