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Gigantic bacterium

Inside the Red Sea surgeonfish, scientists have found a new natural phenomenon: a single-cell creature about as big as the period at the end of this sentence. That may sound pretty tiny, but it's large enough to be seen with the naked eye, which by single-cell-organism-standards means it's positively enormous. Norman Pace, of the University of California, Berkeley, has been examining this cell, and he's pretty convinced it's a bacterium. According to this article, "if the data hold up, and they appear to be pretty darn strong, then this bug will be the largest bacterium every discovered!" Read more about this cool new find in this lively, accessible article.

Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:35:03 -0800