Bacteria go to extremes to handle hard times: They hunker down, building a fortress-like shell around their DNA and turning off all signs of life. And yet, when times improve, these dormant spores can ...

Here’s a spooky conundrum: Is a spore alive or dead? Gürol Süel, a biologist at the University of California, San Diego, wouldn’t blame you if you voted for dead: “There’s nothing to detect: no ...

A composite movie showing the phase contrast of a single spore (top left) to visualize the dormant state. A movie (top right) shows the color-coded electrochemical potential of the same spore. The ...