A beneficial bacterium developed at the University of Delaware cuts turfgrass dollar spot disease by 43.6% – but only with direct leaf application. Their new study details the need for viable, targeted biocontrol strategies in turf management.

In a recent paper published in Geology, scientists propose that certain kinds of wrinkle structures in sedimentary rock are the remnants of ancient microbial communites, similar to those found in deep ocean whale falls today. Geologists have long considered these wrinkle structures as physical in nature, formed by underwater landslides, because the deepsea environment wasn't thought to be hospitable to photosynthetic microbes. In their paper, the researchers demonstate how chemosynthetic microbes, which need no light to grow, could thrive in these environments and leave these wrinkles structures behind. 

A new study led by the University of Liverpool examined olivine to better understand how it deforms. The researchers were surprised to find that about 17% of the crystals showed evidence of deformation involving previously overlooked “b” dislocations.

The mechanisms underlying two important phenomena in the Archean—the emergence of continental crust and the presence of an exceptionally strong geomagnetic field—remain poorly understood. Notably, these two phenomena are temporally correlated, both intensified between ~3.5 and ~2.5 Ga, and declined rapidly at the end of the Archean. A recent study proposes that water-induced mantle overturn that originates from the magma ocean, provides a unified explanation for both the origin and co-evolution of Archean continents and the paleomagnetic field.