As France celebrates National Cheese Day on 27 March, raw milk cheeses like Roquefort and Camembert could disappear, due to standardised production processes and reduced diversity of microorganisms.
An international research group has shown that today’s human activities are radically reshaping the way microbes circulate, with potential repercussions on the world’s ecosystems and inhabitants.
Last year, a group of scientists travelled to the hydrothermal site of Dallol in northern Ethiopia. In this extreme environment and against all odds, they discovered traces of life.
Revealed by metagenomics, previously unknown biodiversity brings our biological understanding into question. “Biological dark matter” may provide clues to a fourth domain of life.