Life Sciences

It has taken 230 years for scientists to describe 1.8 million species of creatures living on Earth. Quentin Wheeler says that five times as many species need to be described in a fraction of the time before many creatures that are still unknown to science disappear into extinction. --by Adelheid Fischer

Cuatro Cienegas, in Mexico's Chihuahuan desert, might hold the key to secrets about microbial evolution, the Cambrian Explosion, speciation, extraterrestrial life, and just about everything else. That key is phosphorus. --by Margaret Coulombe

It looks like an ant. It moves like an ant. It even smells like an ant. It's an ant--right? Or maybe it's a cleverly disguised spider. --by Margaret Coulombe

Infidelity is found in all sorts of animal and insect groups, including other highly organized social organisms, such as ants. Unlike humans, however, worker ants that stray from social norms are rarely, if ever, successful. Chemical signals give them away. --by Margaret Coulombe

Personalized medicine based on your unique genetic makeup may soon be a reality. New technology could reduce the cost and speed of sequencing the entire human genome to $1,000 in 24 hours. --by Joe Caspermeyer

The chemical makeup of the oceans has changed dramatically over billions of years. As a result, the ancient oceans are helping us understand how organisms and ecosystems evolve to cope with changing abundances of elements. --by Jenny Green

Why did the earliest life on Earth--mostly bacteria--remain virtually unchanged for a billion years? --by Diane Boudreau