In gravel and rocks taken from a volcanically heated ocean bed north of Iceland, German scientists have identified an unusual microbe that appears to have the fewest genes of any living organism so far studied. The spherical microbe is just 400 nanometers in diameter and lives on the surface of a slightly larger organism, the investigators report in the May 2 Nature.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.