The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For a pathogen to make us sick, it must overcome a lot. First it has to enter the body, bypassing natural barriers such as skin, mucus, cilia, and stomach acid. Then it needs to reproduce; some bacteria and parasites can …
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La Puna, a high-altitude plateau straddling Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, is not for the faint of heart. Visitors must endure a 10-hour drive from the closest city, battle altitude sickness at heights of 3,200 meters or more, withstand harsh ultraviolet radiation and wildly fluctuating temperatures, and manage without—gasp—Wi-Fi or cell …
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The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Scientists have come to realize that in the soil and rocks beneath our feet there lies a vast biosphere with a global volume nearly twice that of all the world’s oceans. Little is known about these underground organisms, who represent …
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Standing on the marina, Rob Skelly peers into the darkness of the river where bright speckles of algae drift in the water. A neon green invader. “It’s starting to build,” he says. “Tomorrow, you’ll find that there’s clumps like that all over the river—and then the day after that there’ll …
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