News & Opinions

Covering the life sciences inside and out

Google Earth image showing a fish farm off the coast of Greece.  Trujillo P, Piroddi C, Jacquet J (2012) PLoS ONE 7(2): e30546

Satellites Spy on Fish Farms

By Cristina Luiggi

Scientists use Google Earth to fact check official reports of fish farming in the Mediterranean.

Neuroblastoma Flickr, Ed Uthman

Fasting Heightens Chemotherapy Benefits

By Hannah Waters

Starvation paired with cancer drugs slowed or stopped unchecked cell growth in yeast and mouse models of cancer, outpacing or matching the isolated effects of chemo.

Epithelial cells Wikimedia Commons, John Schmidt

Cancer’s First Step

By Megan Scudellari

A single mutant cell breaks free of its neighbors in the early stages of cancer development.

Clostridium difficile. Wikimedia Commons, CDC/ Lois S. Wiggs

C. diff Infection Source Unclear

By Sabrina Richards

Only a quarter of Clostridium difficile infections in one hospital system were traced to contact with a symptomatic patient.

The Nutshell

Daily News Roundup

Brain Proteins May Be Key to Aging

Deterioration of long-lived proteins on the surface of neuronal nuclei in the brain could lead to age-related defects in nervous function.

Komen’s Second Funding Debate

The cancer charity is embroiled in an argument over embryonic stem cell research.

Double Grants, Double Trouble

Observers see grant application fraud as evidence that tighter controls preventing duplicate funding are necessary.

Eli Lilly Freezes Pay

Top staffers and executives at the drug company won’t be receiving raises this year, reflecting tough financial conditions.

Malaria Death Toll Overestimated?

Scientists question data-gathering methods in a new study that estimates a doubling in global malaria deaths.

Current Issue

February 2012

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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…