News & Opinion

Covering the life sciences inside and out

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CANDIDA PERFORMA

The Aging and Inflammation Link

By Ruth Williams

A protein that keeps the immune response in check leads a double life as an anti-aging factor.

Flickr, Nanny snowflake

Pain-Killing Transplants

By Ed Yong

Neurons injected into mice help treat chronic pain at its roots, rather than simply alleviating its symptoms.

A human mesenchymal stem cellWikimedia Commons, Ghanson

Could Stem Cells Cure MS?

By Megan Scudellari

A growth factor isolated from human stem cells shows promising results in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

A red colored droplet inching across a curved trackCurtesy of the Böhringer lab, photo by Michael Isaacs

Next Generation: Good Vibrations

By Edyta Zielinska

Adding texture to a lotus-leaf-like surface lets researchers control the movement of liquid droplets, and provides a cheap alternative for microfluidic applications.

The Nutshell

Daily News Roundup

DNA to Curb Illegal Fishing

A new SNP assay can determine the geographical origin of commonly overexploited fish species.

Fukushima Risk Less Than Feared

Cancers due to radiation will not increase in Japan, according to studies conducted in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster.

Obama to Weigh Open Access

A petition asking for online, readable publication of all government-funded research is making its way to the White House.

Overhauling Industry-Sponsored Studies

Major pharmaceutical companies have agreed to a handful of recommendations aimed at increasing the transparency of clinical trials they fund.

DNA Hard Drive

Researchers design the first rewritable biological data storage system.

Current Issue

May 2012

05_12_Cover_WEB

SPRead Your Antibody Capabilities

Using surface plasmon resonance to improve antibody detection and characterization: four case studies

Data Diving

What lies untapped beneath the surface of published clinical trial analyses could rock the world of independent review.

Freezing Time

Targeting the briefest moment in chemistry may lead to an exceptionally strong new class of drugs.

Telomeres in Disease

Telomeres have been linked to numerous diseases over the years, but how exactly short telomeres cause diseases and how medicine can prevent telomere erosion are still up for debate.

Multimedia

Video, Slideshows, Infographics

The peppered moth is so good at blending in with the background that researchers knew little about its behavior in the wild for decades. Can you spot the light-colored typica moth against the lichen filled tree bark?Michael Majerus

Spot the Moth

It’s a well-known story: The peppered moth’s ancestral typica phenotype is white with dark speckles. In the decades following the…

Infographic: Telomere Basics  View full size JPG | PDF  Scott Leighton, CMI

Telomere Basics

Telomeres are repetitive, noncoding sequences that cap the ends of linear chromosomes. They consist of hexameric nucleotide sequences (TTAGGG in…