Is there a weekend warrior in your dad? Is he a commuter during the week and doing a century on Saturday? Scaling summits when he’s not climbing the corporate ladder? Training for a marathon in between meetings? If your dad contains multisport multitudes, or just wants to unleash his inner PGA pro, he’ll love the data and insights provided by Garmin devices, and they’re on sale for Father’s Day. From golf to gravel grinding to balance out the daily grind, there’s a device that can help Dad up his game. And it’ll get there by June 15 if you act fast. (While you’re at it, get your mom one, too. Have you even called her recently?)

Garmin

We already spotlighted this in our Father’s Day Gift Guide because I’m obsessed. I love testing e-bikes. And while many of them are commuters, I’ve gotten more and more into gravel bikes over the last year. And getting more and more into gravel bikes means getting more and more into metrics. You start thinking about everything from your gear ratio to your heart rate. And even better than thinking about these things is seeing them. That’s where the $699 Garmin Edge 1050 cycling computer and its vivid 1000nit color display make themselves known. Pair it via Bluetooth/ANT+ with a bike like the Specialized Turbo Creo 2 (which we’ve been testing and loving), plus compatible sensors like a heart rate monitor or one of the wearables below. Consolidating that data, the Edge 1050 mounts everything you could want—cadence to climb, stamina insights to turn-by-turn directions, etc.—conveniently and securely in your sightline. The auto-pause/resume feature is great for an accurate picture of output. And it’s got a speaker/on-device bell that’s deeply satisfying to ping at pedestrians who need to look up from their phones if they’re gonna walk on the trail. If Dad is a cyclist, this is the perfect cockpit upgrade. 

• fēnix 8 series – Save $200
• Instinct 3 series – Save $50
• Venu 3 series – Save $100
• Instinct 2 Series – Save $100
• Enduro 3 – Save $100
• Forerunner 965 – Save up to $100
• Descent Mk3i – $200 Rebate

• Approach R10 – Save $150
• Approach S70 – Save $50
• Approach S12 – Save $50
• Approach Z30 – Save $50

• Edge 1050 – Save $100
• Edge 840 – Save $100
• Varia RTL515 – Save $50

The post Help Dad save his metrics while you save money during Garmin’s Father’s Day sale appeared first on Popular Science.

Biologists estimate that four out of five animals on Earth are nematodes (AKA roundworms).The tiny, wriggling, transparent invertebrates are the most abundant creatures on the planet and are found nearly everywhere–from permafrost to the deep ocean. More than one million species make up this ubiquitous group, which includes parasites, decomposers, predators, and more.

“They’re not about to take over the world, because they already did,” says Serena Ding, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany tells Popular Science. “Global worming has already happened.”  

Yet despite their ubiquity in the environment and in research labs (where the nematode C. elegans is a common model organism), a new discovery highlights that there’s still a lot left to learn about these worms. 

Humble roundworms put cheerleaders’ pyramid-building skills to shame. In order to disperse and explore their environment, wild nematodes self-assemble into tower-shaped superorganisms, according to a new study led by Ding and published June 5 in the journal Current Biology. Together, groups of the one-millimeter long worms can act as hyper-coordinated construction squads, with their living bodies providing the raw material for functional, temporary structures. It’s a biological feat that even humans struggle to accomplish. 

This is also the first time that scientists have formally documented the nematode phenomenon occurring in nature. Worm towers– sometimes called swarms– “were kind of just whispered about in the worm community,” says Ding. Previously, there were anecdotal reports and documented observations of these multi-nematode assemblages in labs and other artificial settings, but it wasn’t certain if the formations happened naturally. Now, it’s clear that nematodes do, indeed, form towers without artificial interference.

“They do exist at high densities, they’re interacting, and they’re doing something together.” says Ding, who studies collective behavior. “This was the most exciting thing for me.” 

One tower can contain thousands of worms in a single aggregation, which looks like a cohesive drop of wiggly gelatin. The impressive team effort enables nematodes to hitch rides on passing insects to more favorable habitats and bridge otherwise untraversable gaps, Ding and her co-authors suggest. Studying this behavior could offer insights into the evolution of social animals and how group decision making unfolds.

Only a handful of organisms are known to form collective assemblages for the purpose of dispersing, similar to the nematode towers. “It’s actually super rare,” says Ding, noting that there are just three other, well-documented examples. Slime molds, which are technically single-celled amoebas, often take on multicellular forms, aggregating to make fruiting bodies that send out spores or moving from place to place in a group. Fire ants are known to form rafts with their bodies to get through flood waters, and arrange themselves into towers and bridges to navigate the landscape. Groups of spider mites weave themselves up with silk into a ball that can be carried to distant frontiers on the wind. 

With the new findings, nematodes gain membership to an exclusive group of evolutionary odd-balls. But though superorganism behavior is uncommon across the tree of life, worm towers themselves are surprisingly commonplace. 

To track them down in the wild, the researchers didn’t have to travel far. They started by looking at fallen fruit beneath trees on their university campus with a digital microscope. On rotting apples and pears, they found dozens of nematode towers wiggling at the edges and points of the fruits’ fleshy topography. The scientists also documented the behavior among nematodes found at a mushroom farm. Then, they devised a method of reliably recreating it in the lab.

Here’s their recipe for encouraging worm towers: place a few thousand nematodes on a food-free petri dish that’s flat except for a single tooth brush bristle pointing upwards. Then, wait for a couple of hours. It’s that simple. In hundreds of trials, the worms clustered into their writhing tower formation around the bristle more than 90 percent of the time. The longest towers in these experiments were well over a centimeter long (more than 10x a nematode’s body length). Prior observations have noted towers about five centimeters–or almost two inches–high. 

In additional experiments with fruit flies and with a plastic probe, the researchers showed that worm towers strategically move towards any object that touches them or brushes by. The quick collective action allows the towers to shift fast enough to glom onto the leg of a passing insect. Previous research has documented individual nematodes hitchhiking on insects. However, through tower building, it seems that hundreds of worms can grab a ride at once, making the unwitting bug more akin to a subway train than a single passenger vehicle. The scientists also recorded two instances of the towers probing around and forming bridges to reach new locations, like the petri dish lid. Both observations support the leading hypothesis that nematodes build towers to access new, more suitable habitats. 

Using worms tagged with a fluorescent protein, Ding and her colleagues further found that nematodes building a tower all tend to orient themselves in the same direction. The worms point their heads upwards, and their bodies undulate in time with one another. Yet how they coordinate this intricate collaboration remains unclear. 

Many of the new observations prompt more confusion than clarity. For instance, in the wild groups, towers were exclusively made up of larvae. In the lab, nematodes of all ages collaborated to build. What accounts for the age difference is unknown. Ding and her colleagues didn’t note any apparent competition for the top spots at the tip of the tower, where a worm is most likely to catch a ride. But it’s unclear if a less genetically homogenous group of worms might be more competitive. The researchers also don’t yet understand why the worms opt to disperse collectively instead of solo. Nor do they know how worms decide to begin forming a tower or the neural or sensory mechanisms that enable it. The basic physics of how thousands of tiny, slimy bodies manage to form something so coordinated and solid remains unresolved as well. 

“There are the sorts of questions that we want to address,” says Ding. Ultimately, she hopes to use nematode towers to better understand animal cooperation across species. 

For so long in science, nematodes have been seen as little more than a microbiology model system, allowing researchers to test genetic modifications, understand cells, and map neurons. But, in looking so closely at the worms, generations of scientists may have missed the bigger picture. Nematodes have complex behaviors that are the product of millions of years of evolution. Learning more about what they do could shed light on how animals large and small work together, says Ding. “It pays a lot to think about them as real animals,” she adds. “They’re everywhere, they’re important, and they do things.” 

The post Worm towers are all around us appeared first on Popular Science.

A Supreme Court decision in favor of a Utah oil pipeline will likely have sweeping implications for other energy, transportation, and infrastructure projects. According to reporting by Nina Totenberg for NPR, “The decision makes it easier to win approval for highways, bridges, pipelines, wind farms and other infrastructure projects.”

The ruling concerns a proposed oil pipeline in Utah’s Uinta Basin, which was approved by the Surface Transportation Board (STB). “The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington subsequently ruled that the Board had violated NEPA, by failing to consider the environmental effects from oil drilling and production, referred to as upstream, and oil refining and distribution, known as downstream.”

The Supreme Court’s reversal of that decision signals a rollback of NEPA’s powers. The act has been frequently used by environmental and community activists to block harmful projects and ensure that officials evaluate all the potential impacts of a project. 

• Uinta Basin
• Oil Pipelines
• Energy Infrastructure
• National Environmental Policy Act
• NEPA
• Environmental Reviews
• Environmental Impact Bonds

• Angry Birds Bounce


• Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD+


• Suika Game+


• Crayola Scribble Scrubbie Pets+

Funding for Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is safe — for now. As Mike Albanese explains in the Plano Star Courier, two Texas state bills aimed at removing funding for the transit agency failed, preventing the loss of 5,800 jobs and a 30 percent reduction in service.

One proposed bill, HB 3187, would have returned 25 percent of a sales tax to area cities. That tax now funds 75 percent of DART revenue, so the loss would have been a significant blow to the agency. According to DART Director of Public Relations Jasmyn Carter, the agency is committed to addressing the concerns of member cities who say the agency does not effectively serve their needs. “Moving forward, Carter said the agency will be going through a system modernization program — DART Transform — to address its aging infrastructure, bring in new buses and light rail and many other system improvements.”

• Dallas
• Dallas Area Rapid Transit
• DART
• Public Transit
• Transit Funding

Imagine the ceaseless cacophony of New York City suddenly stopped. No sirens wailed. No cars zoomed. No subways rumbled beneath sidewalks. All eight million New Yorkers disappeared overnight. 

Now, imagine what would happen next. If no one’s around to sweep the sidewalks, weed Central Park, or turn the power grid on, nature would move in—and quick. Dandelions would spring up in asphalt cracks. Raccoons would move into abandoned apartments. Sidewalk trees would outgrow their planters. 

But just how swiftly would the city disappear beneath a curtain of green? We talked to architects and urban ecologists to map out a potential timeline.

With no one to maintain the power grid, the Big Apple would go dark within a few days. The Milky Way would illuminate Midtown as light pollution disappears overnight. Without air conditioning and heat, “you start getting weird temperatures inside the building. Mold starts to form on the walls,” says architect Jana Horvat of the University of Zagreb, who studies building decay. 

Some green energy projects in the city might stay lit for longer, such as the solar and wind-powered Ricoh Americas billboard in Times Square. Eventually, though, even the Ricoh billboard would go dark; not because the billboard would lose power, but because there would be no one to replace its LED lightbulbs. 

Without power, the pump rooms that clear out 13 million gallons of water daily from the subway would be useless, and the train tunnels would begin to flood. “Probably this water would result in [the subway] being, you know, occupied by new species,” says Horvat. “Some plants would start growing, some animals” would move in. Likely, species that already thrive in the subway—rats, cockroaches, pigeons, opossums—would be the first ones to take advantage of the human-free passages. 

Within the first month, the manicured lawns of Central and Prospect Park would grow wild and unkept. “When you stop mowing a lawn, you get a meadow,” says botanist Peter Del Tredici, a senior research scientist emeritus at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, who wrote a book on urban plant life. Within a month, dandelions, ragweed, and yellow nutsedge would start popping up in the now knee-high grasses of New York’s iconic parks. “First, it’s herbaceous plants, but then, you know, you get trees and shrubs and vines,” says Tredici. 

In a year without people, many of New York’s buildings would start to deteriorate. “The glass facades would be the first to go,” says Horvat. The single-pane glass on brownstones and family homes would be the most vulnerable, but in a decade, even the heat-strengthened glass on skyscrapers would start to wear down and crack. And once windows break, water gets in. “Then you’ll have plants start growing in there,” says Tredici. Apartments would transform into humid hothouses, the perfect habitat for mosquitoes, water snakes, fungus, and rushes. “It’s like a wetland on the second floor.”

Without maintenance, the asphalt streets and parking lots in New York would quickly degrade. Freeze-thaw cycles would create cracks. “Water settles in that crack, and then that’s all the plants need,” says Tredici. First, mosses would grow. Within a decade, young trees may even sprout. The London planetree, the most common street tree in New York, is particularly known for its resilience and fast growth rate, and any of its offspring could quickly find a toehold in a deteriorating asphalt parking lot.

Within a decade, the Statue of Liberty would also start to deteriorate. The statue’s copper plating would start to split, allowing sea spray to break down its interior steel skeleton. Steel “is a very durable material, but it is very prone to corroding if it comes in contact with damp conditions,” says Horvat: That’s bad news for New York, a city made from steel. 

In the decades since humans abandoned New York, a “novel ecosystem” would emerge, says Tredici. “It’s not going to look like anything that’s ever existed anywhere in the world.” 

Tredici points to Detroit as a case study. Today, crabapple trees—tough ornamentals native to the Central Asian mountains—blanket Detroit. “They actually will spread all over,” says Tredici, and after 50 years without humans, Central and Riverside Park’s crabapple trees would grow among a young forest full of London planetrees, honeylocusts, pin oaks, and Norway maples (the last three being common New York street trees). Nightshade vines and poison ivy would creep up buildings, and mosses and resilient weeds would cover the higher reaches of exposed windy skyscrapers. 

Among the greenery, more and more animals would call Manhattan home. Deer, rabbits, groundhogs, and wild turkeys would move in. Larger predators—coyotes, bobcats, black bears, and copperhead snakes—would follow. Peregrine falcons, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and great horned owls would nest in hollowed-out buildings, while feral cats prowl the abandoned upper floors of apartment buildings, feasting on mice and birds.

Despite their futuristic look, the city’s newest spires, such as 10 Hudson Yards and 111 West 57th Street, would be the first to fall. These buildings rely on slender, reinforced steel skeletons encased in reinforced concrete. But when the power shuts off and water seeps in through these buildings’ glass curtain walls, these high-rises would rot from the inside out. 

The Empire State Building and Chrysler Building would likely outlast their younger rivals. Built to support much more weight than necessary (a safety precaution in the early days of skyscrapers), these giants’ steel frames are bolstered by thick masonry and interior walls. Ten Hudson Yards might last a century. The Empire State Building might last 50 years longer, but eventually even these historic titans would collapse.

After a century, New York City would “become a forest,” says Tredici. A canopy of mature trees over a 100-feet-tall would replace the city’s skyscrapers. Soil would regenerate. Concrete, one of the world’s “strongest” construction materials, says Horvat, would dissolve. New York’s carefully manicured river parks, such as the Hudson River and East River Park, would transform into wetlands teeming with eels, egrets, turtles, beavers, and muskrats. 

But even as skyscrapers fell and forests grew, parts of New York would “survive for centuries in this ruinous state,” says Horvat. Cracked marble lions would stalk the forest floor. Soil and underbrush would obscure once-gleaming granite fountains. Rusted steel beams would jut out from dense root systems. Even without humans, pieces of New York would endure—a fragile legacy for the future to either uncover or forget. 

This story is part of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post In a world without people, how fast would NYC fall apart? Here’s the timeline. appeared first on Popular Science.

While the opposing team sat in heavy London traffic that eventually delayed the start of the match, the English men’s cricket team hopped on Lime bike share bikes to arrive at the stadium well before the game’s starting time.

According to an article in The Straits Times, England’s team decided to get off their own bus and rent bikes after traffic light failures and road closures caused major congestion on their route to the stadium. Meanwhile, the West Indies team captain, whose bus remained snarled in traffic for another half hour, commented, “We probably should have walked.”

• London
• bike share
• Bikeshare
• Lime
• Bikes
• Traffic

The Amtrak Borealis line, which runs from St. Paul to Chicago, surpassed ridership expectations during its first year, serving over 200,000 passengers as of April 30 (May numbers are yet to be finalized).

As Tm Harlow reports in The Minnesota Star Tribune, original estimates projected just up to 135,000 annual riders. But the line, which connects the two cities via a 7.5 hour daily trip, has proven much more popular. “In Minnesota, Borealis traffic by station, including total boardings and getting off the train, was 106,581 in St. Paul, 11,336 in Red Wing and 11,372 in Winona, according to Amtrak.”

Another Minnesota Amtrak line, the Empire Builder, also saw a growth in ridership, signaling strong demand for intercity trains in the region. Advocacy group All Aboard Minnesota is pushing for extending the Borealis line to St. Cloud, Detroit Lakes, and the Fargo-Moorhead area, as well as advocating for a Twin Cities-to-Kansas City line that would connect to other national routes.

• Borealis
• Amtrak
• Passenger Rail
• Trains
• St. Paul
• Chicago

In the age of quantum computing, AI everything, and literal rockets landing themselves, it’s kind of wild that sharing a file with a client still feels like an awkward game of “Did you get the link?”

That’s why we’ve been nerding out over Cloudbrand Team Cloud Storage, a white-labeled, cloud-based file-sharing platform with a twist: it doesn’t just store your files—it lets you build a branded, secure data exchange system that feels like it belongs in your digital lab.

Now available for a one-time price of $44.99 (regularly $588), this Dropbox and Brandfolder hybrid offers a full 250GB of lifetime cloud storage, complete with custom branding, secure access controls, and no recurring subscription to siphon away your funds like a slow data leak.

Cloudbrand’s backend runs on Cloudflare’s global infrastructure—a name you’ll recognize if you’re into web security and distributed systems. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and clients don’t need to create an account to access files. Translation: fewer obstacles and more control over your files.

Each portal (you can build up to 25 of them) can be fully customized with your own logo, colors, and even domain name so they match your brand identity perfectly. Think of it like spinning up 50 secure digital satellites for each client, all orbiting around your brand.

Agencies (established and growing, freelancers, digital nomads, and basically anyone who sends large files and wants to look like they run a data fortress instead of a cluttered desktop.

If you geek out on clean UI, efficient systems, and turning everyday tools into pro-level gear, Cloudbrand is worth a serious look.

Don’t wait too long to act on this limited-time deal. Grab this Cloudbrand 250GB lifetime subscription for just $44.99 while supplies still last.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

_

Cloudbrand Team Cloud Storage: Lifetime Subscription

See Deal

The post This cloud storage platform lets you launch branded file-sharing portals like mini satellites appeared first on Popular Science.

Last time I posted about a Carhartt T-shirt deal, PopSci readers bought thousands of them. Right now, Amazon has the super-soft Carhartt Force pocket T-shirts even cheaper and in a whole variety of colors. Grab your size and color quickly, as some will likely sell out. Then, use the savings to go pick up an old-school Carhartt work jacket.

Carhartt

Typical Carhartt T-shirts are made of 100 percent cotton, but the Force shirts introduce some polyester into the mix to make them softer and much better at wicking sweat away from your body. That makes this an ideal shirt for wearing under a uniform or just when you’re working up a sweat. Ventilated side panels allow for optimal airflow, which makes a surprisingly huge impact on your body’s ability to chill out. I typically wear a Force T-shirt to the gym and a standard Carhartt T-shirt when I’m walking around.

Each shirt has a pocket on the front as well as a sewn-on Carhartt logo. The material provides UPF 25 protection from the sun, so this is a great option for people who spend a lot of time outside. They’re finished with attention to detail, including flatlock seams to make them look and feel better on your body. This is a fantastic T-shirt that doesn’t go on sale very often.

They’re available in both men’s and women’s sizes.

The link above goes to the black shirt, but here are the color options on sale at the time of publishing:

• Black
• Basil Heather (green)
• Carbon Heather (gray)
• Carhartt Brown
• Engineer Blue Heather
• Forestry Green Heather
• Heather Gray
• Light Huron Heather (blue)
• Malt (beige)
• Navy (blue)
• Ray Flower (yellow)
• Rose Tint (pink)
• Saddle Red Heather
• Sage (green)
• Shaded Beach Heather (tan)

Carhartt

If you’re looking for a sweatshirt to wear all year, the Carhartt Force hoodie is also on sale for 25 percent off. It’s made of 60 percent cotton and 40 percent polyester with a kangaroo pocket up front and another hidden pocket for an electronic device. It has a basic logo on the front, and it comes in sizes up to 4XL with tall options chucked in there for fit. It’s great for chilly summer nights or days in the office when the AC is blasting.

• Carhartt Men’s Force Sun Defender Lightweight Long-Sleeve Logo Graphic T-Shirt $26 (was $35)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Midweight Long-Sleeve Pocket T-Shirt $22.49 (was $30)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Sun Defender Lightweight Short-Sleeve Logo Graphic T-Shirt $22.49 (was $30)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Sun Defender Lightweight Long-Sleeve Hooded Logo Graphic T-Shirt $30 (was $40)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Lightweight Long Sleeve Shirt $37.49 (was $50)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Lightweight Short-Sleeve Shirt $33.74 (was $45)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Lightweight Short-Sleeve Pocket Polo $26.25 (was $35)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Midweight Long-Sleeve Logo Graphic Hooded T-Shirt $25.24 (was $35)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Midweight Short-Sleeve Logo Graphic T-Shirt $22.49 (was $30)
• Carhartt Men’s Rain Defender Relaxed Fit Jacket $67.49 (was $90)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Sun Defender Relaxed Fit Lightweight Short-Sleeve Polo $30 (was $40)

• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Ripstop Utility Pant $45 (was $60)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Ripstop Cargo Work Short $41.24 (was $55)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Ripstop Cargo Work Pant $45 (was $60)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Sun Defender Loose Fit Lightweight Work Short $37.49 (was $50)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Sweatpant $45 (was $60)
• Carhartt Men’s 106265 Force® Sun Defender Relaxed Fit Pant $45 (was $60)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Pant $45 (was $60)
• Carhartt Men’s Force Relaxed Fit Ripstop Cargo Work Short $37.49 (was $50)
• Carhartt Mens Flame Resistant Force Loose Fit Lightweight Coverall $142 (was $179)

• Carhartt Women’s Force Sun Defender Relaxed Fit Short-Sleeve T-Shirt $18.74 (was $25)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Sun Defender Lightweight Long-Sleeve Graphic T-Shirt $27 (was $35)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Sun Defender Lightweight Long-Sleeve Hooded Graphic T-Shirt $30 (was $40)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Relaxed Fit Tank $18.74 (was $25)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Relaxed Fit Midweight Long-Sleeve Pocket T-Shirt $22.49 (was $30)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Relaxed Fit Lightweight Short Sleeve Shirt $33.74 (was $45)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Relaxed Fit Lightweight Short-Sleeve Pocket Polo $26.24 (was $35)

• Carhartt Women’s Force Fitted Midweight Utility Legging $45 (was $70)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Relaxed Fit Ripstop Work Pant $52.49 (was $70)
• Carhartt Women’s Force Fitted Lightweight Utility Short $37.49 (was $50)

The post Stock up on Carhartt Force T-shirts, shorts, pants, and hoodies with sun protection during this rare Amazon sale appeared first on Popular Science.

The tiny world of microorganisms is full of microbes competing in a major life or death battle. The tiny lifeforms compete for turf, gobble up some pollutants, spew chemicals at their foes, and will exploit terrain in order to get an edge and thrive. New research into this microscopic turf war found that bacteria can speed up by using fluid pockets that are shaped by nearby yeast cells. Hitching a ride with these moisture trails allows the bacteria to spread faster and swim further. The findings are detailed in a study published June 4 in the Cell Press journal Biophysical Journal and reveal a new way that microbes travel through plants, soil, and even our own bodies. 

“When studying microbial interactions, research often focuses on the chemical nature of these interactions,” study co-author and Cornell University microbiome engineer Divakar Badal said in a statement. “But we learned that physical properties also play an important role in how microbes grow and spread.” 

In the study, the team focused on the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa and fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. P. aeruginosa is a rod-shaped bacteria found in soil and human airways and has tail-like propellers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it can cause infections in the blood, lungs (pneumonia), urinary tract, or other parts of the body after surgery.

C. neoformans is a stationary yeast that can be deadly in those with weakened immune systems and lives throughout the world. Infections from this fungus can affect the different parts of the body, but causes lung or brain infections (cryptococcal meningitis) most often. 

The team watched under a microscope as the two species closed in on each other. The P. aeruginosa bacterium eventually swarmed into the puddle-like fluid surrounding the C. neoformans yeast. The bacteria cultured with yeast spread up to 14.5 times faster than when it was cultured alone. Additionally, isolated bacterial colonies quickly connected into continuous clumps. 

At a microscopic scale, P. aeruginosa is comparable to a grain of rice. On that same scale, the yeast is about the size of a grape. These larger yeast bodies draw in moisture from the surface, which forms a thin halo of fluid that acts as a temporary swimming lane. This lane allows the bacteria to bypass the usual physical limits of a dry surface. When the team replaced the live yeast with dead ones or glass beads, the same halo effect was produced, indicating that the puddles were driving it. 

“The bigger the obstacle, yeast and glass beads alike, the more fluid you have around it, and it’s better for Pseudomonas,” added Varsha Singh, a study co-author and molecular biologist at the University of Dundee in Scotland. “So, it’s leveraging what could have been an obstacle to move farther ahead.” 

[ Related: Bacteria wars are raging in soil, and it’s keeping ecosystems healthy. ]

The team also found that the spread of the bacteria ebbs and flows within the landscape that the growing yeast cells create. They built a model to simulate the interactions between both the bacterium and yeast to better understand the dynamics at play. The model indicates that faster-growing yeast species like C. albicans altered the fluid landscape more dramatically, affecting just how quickly bacteria could travel.  

“I was absolutely blown away by how well our model predictions match the experimental results,” said Danny Raj M, a study co-author and engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. “In a sense, the model is a virtual lab that simulates real behaviors. By changing the parameters, from growth rates to humidity, we can answer a number of questions.” 

According to the team, the implications of this research go beyond the model and lab. Bacteria and yeast coexist in plants, soil, water, and the human body. The ability to ride fluid films may be one of the factors that helps bacteria colonize these environments more effectively, especially if moisture is scarce. The team plans to examine the way that both species interact in the real world to learn more. 

“We tend to think of microbiology in an anthropomorphic way, focused on human lungs or the gut because we can relate to them,” said Singh. “But much of it plays out in the soil and other environments. That gives us a wonderful opportunity to explore new questions. I think that’s where the next frontier is.”

The post Watch bacteria ‘hitchhike’ and zoom around appeared first on Popular Science.