Ciliates are unique among unicellular organisms in that they separate germline and somatic functions 1. Each cell harbours two kinds of nucleus, namely silent diploid micronuclei and highly polyploid ...

Paramecium or paramecia are single-celled protists that are naturally found in aquatic habitats. They are typically oblong or slipper-shaped and are covered with short hairy structures called cilia.

Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Jul., 1928), pp. 275-282 (10 pages) ...

The mating process is one of the most important mechanisms for maintaining genetic variation in natural populations. The emergence of sexual reproduction turned out to be the most important ...

The paramecium is an amazing organism. It survives and thrives using just one basic principle: If things are getting better, keep swimming in that direction, and if not, change course. If the water’s ...

Considered as an obsolete theory for many years, the transmission of acquired traits has returned to the forefront of debate thanks to the development of epigenetic research. In this context, a team ...

When two organisms live together so closely that they merge into a functional unit, this is known as symbiosis. In the "1+1=1" project, an international, interdisciplinary research team is ...

A mesmerising time-lapse clip that swept across X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, purporting to depict the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS hurtling through space, has been definitively exposed as a ...

Conjugation (or mating) of ciliates is a unique phenomenon among living beings. They have sex not for reproduction or pleasure — they seek to increase genetic variation. Scientists from St Petersburg ...

There are more than 50,000 different types of microorganisms known to scientists -– and they discover more every year. In a basement laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, two robotocists have ...

This week’s tip is adapted from a commencement speech I gave recently at the University of Pennsylvania. You can watch the entire speech here. The paramecium is an amazing organism. It survives and ...