An experiment, elegant in its simplicity, helps explain why water becomes electrified when it touches hydrophobic surfaces.

A newly sequenced coral genome offers tools to understand environmental adaptation.

Stem cell trafficking to the bone marrow is improved by enzyme manufactured in silkworms and yeast.

A new electroactive bacterium could help fuel wastewater treatment reactors.

In probably the first observation of its kind, a tricky triggerfish is seen beaching itself before attacking a crab walking along the shoreline.

A decades-old technique for probing protein motions proves more accurate than current practices.

Combining solar-harvesting materials with carbon-dioxide–consuming microbes could be an efficient way to generate clean fuels.

Custom-fabricated lenses make it easy to attach high-tech microscopes directly to cell incubators.

A nutritious millet crop grown mainly in West Africa could be genetically improved for large-scale agriculture in Saudi Arabia.

A molecular mimic designed to promote plant growth and limit witchweed infestation shows promise in initial trials.

Multistakeholder collaboration is key for the adoption of molecular approaches that can facilitate accurate, cheaper and faster monitoring of marine ecosystems.

A method that lights up tags attached to selected proteins can help to purify the proteins from a mixed protein pool.

A sequencing approach can home in on a rare mutation within a large number of cells, revealing implications for CRISPR genome editing and early cancer detection.

Light-responsive building blocks provide organic membranes with light-controlled permeability and selectivity.

A safer technique reveals that corals take up seawater pollutants both directly and indirectly.

Efficient greenhouse complexes that will grow crops using the resources available on desert coasts could improve food security for millions.

Models based on images from unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites can help farmers to monitor the health of individual trees.

Giant clams manipulate light to assist their symbiotic partner.

An assay for imaging the physical interactions between multiple cell populations could help cancer research and treatment assessment.

More energy-efficient wastewater treatment may be possible by harnessing anammox bacteria’s surprising ability to "breathe" solid-state matter.