microbiology

New ‘fire amoeba’ shatters heat record for complex life

Scientists have discovered a new species of amoeba that thrives at temperatures previously thought impossible for complex life, breaking the long-standing record for eukaryotic heat tolerance. The organism, named *Incendiamoeba cascadensis* — or "fire amoeba from the Cascades" — can…

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Study finds life on Earth may have arisen twice

The first free-living cells on Earth may not have emerged in a single event. Instead, bacteria and archaea — the two primordial lineages of life — appear to have independently crossed the threshold from non-living chemistry to living organisms, according…

Study finds giant viruses helped build first complex cells

For decades, the story of how complex life arose on Earth has been told as a partnership between two microorganisms: an archaeon that served as the host and a bacterium that became the mitochondrion. A study published Wednesday in Nature…