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The highly adaptable nature of viruses is one of their most dangerous strengths. They are programmed to survive at all costs, mutating into different forms that often make the leap between different species. The infamous Ebola virus, which has infected almost 15,000 people in Africa this year, first evolved in monkeys and then evolved into a form which could be transmitted to humans.

Mammal to mammal transmission is not a huge leap to make, however, as the physiology involved is similar in each species. But could viruses that affect totally different life forms, such as algae, possibly evolve into a variety that could threaten humans?
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It has been said that "life will always find a way," and a recent discovery by Russian space officials appears to confirm that life can certainly exist in the most hostile of environments.

Traces of plankton and other microorganisms have been found living happily aboard the International Space Station (ISS), not safely within its cosy interior but clinging to its exterior surfaces assaulted by freezing temperatures and cosmic radiation. It seems that the tiny organisms are even able to survive in an atmosphere without oxygen, previously thought to be one of the factors necessary to support any form of life.
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A new report released last week by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has further highlighted the fact that emissions of greenhouse gases worldwide have risen to unprecedented levels, despite an increasing number of global measures to reduce climate change.

The report indicates that emissions increased more rapidly in the decade spanning between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the previous three decades, and states that it would require a dramatic shift towards renewable energies in order to reverse the worrying trend.
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We’re all worried about terrorist threats against airlines, but most of us are unaware of the dangerous microbes that live in aviation fuel that can mess up the planes’ instruments, cause fuel leaks, and even eat through the wings if undetected. Now scientists have developed a test that lets non-scientists check oils, fuels and water for “microbial fouling, spoilage and corrosion” caused by bacteria, yeasts and molds. Airlines simply add a sample of the fuel to a bottle of gel, and get results overnight.
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