Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect and kill bacteria, and they are among the most abundant biological entities on Earth. Doctors used them to treat infections a century ago, but antibiotics, patchy results and the Cold War pushed phage medicine aside in the West. As drug-resistant infections spread, with antibiotic resistance projected to contribute to more than eight million deaths a year by 2050, phages are back in focus. A big obstacle is that most of their genes have unknown functions, and most knowledge comes from a few well-studied phages. A new method pinpoints which genes a phage needs to function and can insert new genetic material into its genome within days. This could allow researchers to engineer phages that are better at attacking harmful bacteria.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.