News & Opinions

Covering the life sciences inside and out

Metal oxide nano particles Flickr, BASF - The Chemical Company

Opinion: No Objections to Nano?

By Susanna Priest

While biotechnology has met with mixed public reactions, to date nanotechnology seems to invoke much less public concern.

Research assistant at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Geoffrey Grandjean, obtained this image showing human ovarian cancer cells stained for DNA (red) and microtubules (green), during an siRNA screening. The particular gene knockdown in this screen disrupted cell division, causing the giant cell in the middle to grow very large. 2011 IN Cell Analyzer Image Competition

Color Explosion

By Cristina Luiggi

A fluorescence microscopy image competition straddles the boundary of science and art.

iStockPhoto.com

Sex, Deconstructed

By Megan Scudellari

Hormones in the brain control sex-specific behaviors by activating individual genetic programs.

Wikimedia Commons, Vossman

RNA Chases Its Tail

By Sabrina Richards

New research suggests that circular RNA transcripts are not as rare as previously thought.

The Nutshell

Daily News Roundup

Cancer-Gene Tests for Norway Clinics

The Scandinavian country commences an initiative to bring gene sequencing to cancer treatment.

A Bill to Expedite Drug Production

Legislation proposes speeding certain drug applications submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration.

Multitude of Misconducts

A database manager stole NIH grant funds, falsified data, and lied about it.

Indiana Senate Backs Creationism Bill

Origin of life theories from a wide range of religions may be taught alongside evolution in the state.

MRSA Found in Antibiotic-free Meat

Just because meat is labeled “antibiotic-free” doesn’t mean it’s antibiotic-resistant superbug-free.

Current Issue

February 2012

02_12_Cover_website

The Enigmatic Membrane

Despite years of research, the longstanding mystery of where the autophagosome gets its double lipid bilayers is not much clearer.

Casting a Wide Eye

Scientists study a variety of large-scale biological phenomena from the vantage point of space.

Little Squirts

A road map to liquid-handling solutions on the market

The War Within

Unraveling the molecular causes of acute pancreatitis—a potentially deadly disease in which the pancreas essentially digests itself—is yielding clues to how it might be treated.

Multimedia

Video, Slideshows, Infographics

Entomologist at Vilnius University, Lithuania, Sigitas Podenas samples from a stream meandering the Altai Mountains in Mongolia as part of the Mongolian Aquatic Insect Survey.Jon Gelhaus

Swarming Mongolia

For the past decade and a half, a crew of about 20 entomologists, water ecologists, and other specialists converges on…

The Millennium Coral Reef Mapping project created the first ever map of coral reefs around the world using more than 1,000 coastal images obtained from the Landsat 7 satellite, such as this coral reef system in Los Roques, Venezuela. NASA/USGS

The View From Above

Life scientists from a wide range of fields—from ecology and epidemiology to anthropology, marine microbiology, and animal behavior—are increasingly turning…