FEATURES

“You learn on the job how to think like a filmmaker rather than a biologist”

Tom Ireland talks to filmmaker and former research biologist Dr Elizabeth White, who co-produced the extraordinary BBC series Planet Earth II

Art Imitating Life

Artist Rogan Brown's exquisite sculptures – mostly cut by hand – are inspired by the patterns and forms of the microbial world

Salt Survivors

Joe Zaccai looks at new research on the substances that enable halophile bacteria to function in high salt concentrations

Scratching the surface

Roger Marchant asks whether chemicals produced by bacteria and yeast could replace the environmentally hazardous surfactants found in many everyday products

Going back in genes

A new analysis of the genes common to bacteria and archaea offers strong evidence that the earliest cells on Earth lived deep in hydrothermal vents, explains William F Martin

The biosecurity front line