In winter sports, lugers slide at more than 90 miles per hour, hockey players send the puck zipping across the ice at 100 mph ...

For bacteria, squeezing through tight spaces can be a dead end. Narrow passages usually trap cells, halt their movement, and effectively filter out which microbes can go any farther. But new research ...

Researchers have discovered how bacteria break through spaces barely larger than themselves, by wrapping their flagella around their bodies and moving forward. Using a microfluidic device that mimics ...

“A very diverse set of gut bacteria can ‘swim’ through the layer of mucus that lines the intestines using specialized thread-like structures called flagella, the assembly and function of which ...

Scientists have uncovered a new explanation for how swimming bacteria change direction, providing fresh insight into one of biology’s most intensively studied molecular machines. Bacteria move through ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. These bacteria don’t eat food or breathe air like we do.

Scientists have uncovered a new explanation for how swimming bacteria change direction, providing fresh insight into one of biology's most intensively studied molecular machines. Bacteria move through ...

The human intestine is home to trillions of microscopic organisms, including hundreds of species of bacteria. In most people, these bacteria co-exist peacefully and contribute to a mutually beneficial ...

The U.S. is witnessing a troubling rise in infections caused by bacteria carrying the NDM gene — dubbed “nightmare bacteria”— which one expert says poses a "grave danger" to public health. Infection ...