These included soil microbes, which govern the nutrient cycling reactions in soils, and mycorrhizae, root-colonising fungi which help plants to absorb nutrients.

BBC: Organic farming 'a realistic choice'

In this instance, the designers envisioned in situ bioremediation, a process in which lingering toxic contaminants are cleaned up by soil microbes at the site.

FORBES: Written by Matt Hickman

We then follow that carbon which has been fixed by the plant into the soil and into the microbes and back out of the soil.

BBC: Measuring bioenergy crops' carbon footprint credentials

Some scientists still defend those results: the soil may have had microbes living on ice beneath the surface, they say.

NEWYORKER: The Martian Chroniclers

Microarrays also obtain genetic information from microbes in soil or water, and while less quantitative than qPCR, this method can analyze tens of thousands of genes at once.

FORBES: Guest post written by Aaron Peacock

Until the 20th Century, the nutrient element only came to Earth in a reactive form that is usable by plants and animals, thanks to certain microbes in soil and water (and to a smaller extent in lightning strikes).

BBC: Leaving our mark: Fossils of the future

These microbes are found just about everywhere--in the soil, at the bottom of the ocean, inside our bodies.

FORBES: On The Cover/Top Stories

Thirty-six years after the Viking landers collected soil on Mars, scientists can still make news by declaring that the samples indicate the presence of microbes.

NEWYORKER: The Cosmic Menagerie