Bacteria living inside other cells can form stable, mutually beneficial partnerships with their hosts, but it is rare that two organisms are sufficiently compatible on their first encounter. Injecting bacteria into potential fungal hosts provides insights into the early evolutionary dynamics of the formation of such partnerships, and the associated costs and opportunities.

Phone users around the world are enabling the creation of a space-weather monitor that will deepen our understanding of the physics governing Earth’s ionized upper atmosphere and improve the accuracy of satellite positioning.

Whether rising carbon dioxide concentrations affect terrestrial species diversity around the globe is, surprisingly, almost unstudied. A 24-year field experiment shows that adding nitrogen to grassland plots reduces species richness, and that increasing the level of carbon dioxide amplifies this effect, tripling the reductions caused by nitrogen addition.

The enzyme cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) and its partner cyclin B1 were thought to be sufficient to achieve error-free cell division. But now CDK5, an atypical cyclin-dependent kinase mostly known for its functions in non-dividing neurons, is shown to help to reduce errors in cell division.