cell & molecular biology

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y_chromosome (1)

Long Live the Y

By Megan Scudellari

Despite suggestions to the contrary, the Y chromosome is not necessarily rotting away.

Wikimedia Commons, Fish & Wildlife Service, John and Karen Hollingsworth

How Tigers Get Their Stripes

By Bob Grant

For the first time researchers have demonstrated the molecular tango that gives rise to repeating patterns in developing animal embryos.

Wikimedia Commons, TheBrain

Alzheimer’s Drugs Harmful?

By Bob Grant

The researcher who helped develop an Alzheimer’s treatment now in clinical trials warns that the compound may actually impair memory.

A screen shot of The Scale of the Universe 2htwins.net/scale2/

Zooming into Life

By Edyta Zielinska

Teenagers create a program that lets viewers compare the sizes of things on earth and in space.

Prion fibrils Valerie Sim, niaid.nih.gov

Propitious Prions

By Megan Scudellari

Often thought to be artifacts of the lab, prions in yeast may actually drive the evolution of beneficial traits.

C. elegans embryonic cells with plasma membranes in purple and myosin motors in yellow. The embryo has 26 cells at this stage, and two of the cells  are about to become internalized, moving from the surface to the interior. Chris Higgins, UNC Chapel Hill and Liang Gao, Janelia Farm

Cell Change Up

By Cristina Luiggi

Imaging cell cytoskeletons during early embryonic development leads researchers to uncover a new regulator of cell shape

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.

Wikimedia Commons, PLoS Biology

Brain Proteins May Be Key to Aging

By Bob Grant

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

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.