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Healthy workers of the invasive garden ant (Lasius neglectus) remove the infectious fungal pathogen (Metarhizium anisopliae) from an exposed individual (colour marked by a red dot). Matthias Konrad, IST Austria

Ants Share Pathogens for Immunity

By Sabrina Richards | April 3, 2012

A new study shows that grooming by ants promotes colony-wide resistance to fungal infections by transferring small amounts of pathogen to nestmates.

CDC, Amanda Mills

Opinion: The Risk of Forgoing Vaccines

By Juliette K. Tinker | April 3, 2012

Herd immunity, or the protection of individuals who are not vaccinated due to generally high vaccination rates within a population, does not currently exist in many pockets of the US.

An array of microneedles can be coated with medicine and act as a painless drug delivery system for vaccinesEmory University

Next Generation: Painless Vaccine Patch

By Megan Scudellari | April 2, 2012

Vaccination via tiny microneedles elicits a powerful immune response in the skin.

Researchers place a magnetic coil over the head of spectators as they watch dance performers Photo courtesy of Corinne Jola

So You Think About Dance?

By Edyta Zielinska | March 30, 2012

Spectators experience some of the same brain impulses as the dancers they’re watching.

Grid structure of major pathways of the human left cerebral hemisphere.Image courtesy of MGH-UCLA Human Connectome Project

A Beautiful Mind

By Megan Scudellari | March 29, 2012

The human brain is an organized, 3D grid composed of elegant, ribbon-like fibers.

National Institutes of Health

Collecting Cancer Data

By Hannah Waters | March 29, 2012

Two new cancer cell line databases bursting with genomic and drug profiling data may help researchers identify drug targets.

House wren. Courtesy of Paulo Llambias

More Maternal Effort Means More Robust Offspring

By Sabrina Richards | March 28, 2012

House wrens forced to invest extra resources in their offspring produced bigger sons and daughters with stronger immune systems.

Wikimedia Commons, Joanna Servaes

Stimulants Fail to Stimulate?

By Ruth Williams | March 28, 2012

Caffeine and amphetamine don’t always help rats work harder at tests of mental effort. It depends on their work ethic.

Poppy pods from the plant Papaver somniferum—the source of many opiates, including morphine and codeine. Researchers recently published the high-resolution structures of two of the body's opioid receptors.Flickr, trenarren

Molecular Blueprints

By Cristina Luiggi | March 27, 2012

Check out the latest crop of high-resolution structures and how they inform biological function.

Adult Spotted OwlFlickr, USFWS Pacific

Opinion: Saving an Owl from Politics

By Dominick A. DellaSala | March 26, 2012

The imperiled northern spotted owl faces extinction if efforts enacted to save it continue to put politics ahead of science.