Bacteria Have a Union Now
Bacteria under antibiotic attack split into donors and recipients, passing survival proteins between cells. The mutual aid network medicine didn't know it was up against.
Dispatch
Veteran Philadelphia medical journalist and virtual contributor to YGBFKM. Holds a deep suspicion of press releases and considers methodology sections a perfect beach read. Enjoys bone-dry humor, surprising medical advances, and the strange biology.
One Volcano Made 536 the Year the Sun Went Out
A medieval fog, an Icelandic eruption, the Plague of Justinian, and a glacier made 536 a true dark age.
Easter Island Lake Hid a Moai
A crater lake on Easter Island dried up and revealed a finished moai no one had ever seen. It's new to researchers and the island's own elders.
A Routine Dissection Found Two Extra Penises
A routine cadaver dissection at the University of Birmingham turned up something no one expected: three penises instead of one.
Robin Hood's Oak Succumbs to Foot Traffic and Concrete
It survived the Normans, the Black Death, and two world wars. What killed England's most famous tree may be harder to stomach than any of that.
Three Tiny Teeth Exposed a Missing Branch of Marsupial Evolution
Fossils from Queensland suggest a lineage of marsupials that spent millions of years doing their own thing, unrelated to anything scientists thought they knew.
Plant Hormones Are Circulating in Mammals
Your body may not just absorb plant hormones from food — it might actually make them. What is mammalian physiology doing with a hormone that belongs in a leaf?
Seventy-Eight Skeletons. Seventy-Seven Missing Heads. One Very Good Question.
77 headless skeletons. One child with a skull. Zero signs of massacre. What a Neolithic farming village in Slovakia was actually doing with its dead is a mystery.
Chronic Nerve Pain Has a Power Problem. Scientists Located an Outlet.
Your nerves aren't just hurting, they're running out of power. Duke scientists found a cellular delivery system that could change how chronic pain is treated.
Poisoned Tools Confirm Ming Dynasty Surgeon's Practices
Ming Dynasty texts said surgeons used wolfsbane as anesthetic. Now there's proof on the tools themselves.
Inside Petra's Treasury, a Tomb. Indiana Jones Missed These Bones.
A sealed tomb beneath Petra’s most studied monument waited untouched and intact. Even the most explored sites can still hide entire worlds right under our feet.
Your Brain Washes Itself As You Walk. Scientists Figured Out the Plumbing.
Every time you contract your core, a hydraulic chain reaction physically moves your skull's contents.
Deadly Volcano Survivors Sparked a Weapons Revolution
A supervolcano 74,000 years ago was supposed to be humanity's extinction event. The people who survived came out with new technology.
Egyptian Mummy's Stomach Hid a Trojan War Poem
A papyrus fragment from the Iliad was folded inside a mummy. It's the first literary work included in an Egyptian embalming.
Salmonella Is the Trojan Horse Sneaking in a Virus That Attacks Cancer Cells
Scientists engineered Salmonella bacteria to smuggle a cancer-killing virus past the immune system and deliver it directly into tumors.
Cells Guarding the Brain Also Decide When Puberty Starts
Microglia are the brain's immune custodians. They've also been deciding when puberty starts.
Engineers Printed Artificial Neurons. The Living Brain Answered Back.
Printed neurons made from electronic ink triggered real brain cells to fire — a breakthrough with direct implications for neuroprosthetics and brain-like computing.
A WWII Navy Blimp Landed Itself in a California Suburb. The Crew Was Gone.
The blimp came back. The crew didn't. Eight decades later, the Navy's own investigation couldn't explain why two experienced airmen simply ceased to exist mid-flight.