The tiny cell that broke a big rule of biology

Grist
By Jesse NicholsJul 9, 2026, 4:30 am108 pts
For decades, Jon Zehr was haunted by an organism he knew was here — but couldn’t see. It all started in the ‘90s on a research boat in the middle of the ocean. Zehr was an oceanographer studying nitrogen-fixing bacteria — simple, microbial life forms that could pull the element straight from the air,…

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