The nearly $1 million grant will enable Nicholas Shikuma to further explore how bacteria cause metamorphosis in marine animals and corals.

“My graduate students are stressed about the impact this will have on their research,” Shikuma said. “Among my undergraduate students, some are seniors who are sad to leave their friends since this is their last semester in college, and I can relate to that.”

Forest Rohwer has been awarded $2 million to explore ways to help coral reefs adapt to climate change. He is one of 15 scientists from different research institutions around the world chosen by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to receive investigator awards to pursue research under the Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative (SASI).

By scraping tubeworms off the bottom of boats in San Diego Bay to study them, SDSU researchers discovered a beneficial bacterium that aids in establishing colonies could also be a boon for human health, because the same process might already take place in the human gut.

A study released today in Nature Microbiology reveals patterns of a virus that half the people in the world are carrying. The collaboration of 117 scientists across the globe focuses on crAssphage, a virus that feeds on human gut bacteria.

“Investigations of day-night rhythms of reef processes are required to holistically understand the functional roles of microbial players in these ecosystems,” said Linda Wegley Kelly…

Sarah Kienle, a comparative biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, measuring the skull of a northern elephant seal. Photo Credit: Carolyn Lagattuta/UC Santa Cruz By comparing the bones of ancient and contemporary seals, researchers say a...

“Our work, which, to our knowledge, is the first to describe the kinematics of evasive leaps by bipedal rodents avoiding actual attacks from predators, supports the idea that bipedalism may have been favored in kangaroo rats because it allows for the rapid…