Photosynthesis

Fossils called stromatolites from Western Australia were created by microbes 3.48 billion years ago.

Microscopic algae that eat free-floating bacteria in the open ocean.

Products of chlorophyll breakdown make ripening bananas glow blue under black lights.

Quantum effects spill out of physics labs and into wet and messy biological systems.

The planet has endured far more dramatic climate change in the past fueled by other forms of life. But rarely if ever has the change been so rapid.

Biological activity in some Arctic lakes has ratcheted up dramatically over the past 150 years.

They work the night shift, let their roots die, and fend off thirsty predators to conserve every precious drop.

A NASA satellite has photographed a particularly artful bloom in the Arabian Sea.