This year’s awards recognize work on integrins, noninvasive prenatal screening, and COVID-19 data tracking. | Continue reading
Researchers made the find using an algorithm that purportedly distinguishes between mutations that were selected for and those that came along for the ride by coincidence, a feat that has long eluded scientists. | Continue reading
Fasting, eating only at certain times of day, and restricting overall calorie intake can collectively contribute to lifespan extensions in animals. Could the same hold true in humans? | Continue reading
Research traces the evolution of a gene variant that reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, finding that it originally evolved in response to infectious bacteria. | Continue reading
The shift is likely to add to an ongoing shortage of primates used in labs, which could slow progress in future COVID-19 vaccine development and other areas. | Continue reading
How horned rabbits led the way to the HPV vaccine | Continue reading
Advances in sequencing technologies have finally allowed researchers to zero in on the genetic diversity underlying the incredible mating system of shelf fungi. | Continue reading
The device can chill nerves as small as a few millimeters across, but more testing and modifications are necessary before it could relieve pain in humans. | Continue reading
Experiments in animals and observations in humans suggest that the amount of proline circulating in one’s plasma has a strong association with depression severity. | Continue reading
Niacin, a form of vitamin B3 used to treat cardiovascular disease, helps immune cells in the brain fight neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s in mice models, according to recent studies. Researchers hope that human clinical trials will swiftly follow. | Continue reading
Scientists find that two species can be trained to distinguish quantities that vary by one. | Continue reading
The now month-long invasion of Ukraine has resulted in changes in policies and severances of international scientific collaborations with Russian universities and researchers. The war has also precipitated a moral reckoning for many scientists in Russia. | Continue reading
Coupling a diet low in calories, sugar, and protein with existing cancer drugs treats triple-negative breast cancer in mice, and low blood glucose is associated with better cancer outcomes in human patients. | Continue reading
A first-of-its-kind gene therapy dramatically reduced misfolded protein levels in some clinical trial participants for up to six months and reduced levels in all participants for up to a year. | Continue reading
A study shows that a molecule produced by intestinal microbes can enter the brain and that its presence is also associated with altered brain connectivity. | Continue reading
Transcription and translation of DNA containing synthetic base pairs becomes a reality in living cells. | Continue reading
A study reveals a connection between the loss of enzymes responsible for removing methyl groups from DNA, nucleic acid knots, and cancer development in mice. | Continue reading
A negative version of the placebo effect may be behind many instances of mild side effects associated with the jabs, a study suggests. | Continue reading
A study that transfused plasma from active to inactive mice suggests the protein clusterin enhances cognition. | Continue reading
Researchers involved in an eight-year project to reproduce the findings of more than 50 high-impact papers struggled to get enough information to even carry out most of the experiments. | Continue reading
Biological robots made from frog cells can replicate by smooshing loose cells into new robots -- a reproduction method not seen in any other organism. | Continue reading
Researchers link a missense mutation in the B4GALT1 gene to lower levels of LDL cholesterol and the blood clotting factor fibrinogen. | Continue reading
The silk draglines made by zebra jumping spiders are tougher than the silk webbing of orb weaver spiders, even though they’re made at 25 to 35 times the speed. | Continue reading
Bridge spiders "outsource" their hearing by building webs that double as acoustic arrays, allowing them to perceive sounds from great distances. | Continue reading
Nearly three dozen of Mexico’s leading researchers are being accused of money laundering, embezzlement, and organized crime, a move other academics say is politically motivated. | Continue reading
Researchers discover that when the mind wanders or goes blank, some parts of the brain behave as they do during sleep. | Continue reading
Attorneys for the family seek compensation for the company's sale of cells cloned from tissue removed without consent by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital 70 years ago. | Continue reading
Gardner famously claimed to have taught chimpanzees to communicate with people using American Sign Language by raising them as if they were human children. | Continue reading
Our perception of quantity, separate from counting or estimation of magnitude more generally, is foundational to human cognition, according to some neuroscientists. | Continue reading
Activation of retrotransposons in the animals’ cancerous cells sets off an innate immune response that triggers cell death. | Continue reading
This year's winners are Dieter Oesterhelt, Peter Hegemann, Karl Deisseroth, Drew Weissman, Katalin Karikó, and David Baltimore. | Continue reading
The SARS-CoV-2 variant was first detected in January, but its rising prevalence and potential resistance to vaccines has garnered it special attention from the World Health Organization. | Continue reading
Genetic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic data reveal molecular mechanisms tying these disorders to each other and to immune disfunction. | Continue reading
A Cochrane review bolsters scientists' advice that ivermectin should not be used against the disease outside of clinical trials, while a study claiming to have found beneficial effects in patients was withdrawn following allegations of data manipulation. | Continue reading
A light-sensitive gene involved in regulating the body clock may also influence mood, mediating the effect of light. | Continue reading
Bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of animals may influence the adaptive trajectories of their hosts. | Continue reading
Researchers who spoke with Spectrum say that while brain imaging tools have their limitations, they still hold promise in helping to unlock the brain's secrets. | Continue reading
After eight weeks of exposure to ecologically plausible levels of methamphetamines, the fish tended to prefer meth-laced water over water without the drug. | Continue reading
As people move to the United States from Southeast Asia, the microbes in their digestive tracts begin to Westernize, possibly explaining high rates of obesity and other metabolic issues in these immigrant populations. | Continue reading
A detailed analysis of cryptochrome 4 shows that the protein is highly sensitive to magnetic fields in vitro, but some researchers dispute the authors' assertion that the findings could help explain avian magnetoreception. | Continue reading
A combination of approaches, including uterus transplantation and the joining of two animals’ circulatory systems, allowed males to bear pups, according to a preprint. But some experts say the experiments were not justified. | Continue reading
The largest study to date of the animals' genetics provides robust evidence that they are adapting to survive a highly lethal, contagious cancer scientists feared would cause their extinction. | Continue reading
The legislation, which now heads to the House, aims to ensure the country can compete with China technologically by supporting research and development over the next five years. | Continue reading
The World Health Organization-led program will promote equity in addition to facilitating access to samples, a WHO official involved in the project tells The Scientist. | Continue reading
The experimental system, developed and tested in just one patient so far, relies on brain signals associated with handwriting to achieve the fastest communication yet seen with BCI. | Continue reading
In a trio of studies, researchers follow up on a 40-year-old finding that certain bacteriophages replace adenine with so-called diaminopurine, perhaps to avoid host degradation. | Continue reading
In the 20th century, animals such as mules and ligers that had parents of different species were considered biological flukes, but genetic sequencing is beginning to unravel the critical role of hybridization in evolution. | Continue reading