Biology
Using spider toxins to study the proteins that let nerve cells send out electrical signals, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have stumbled upon a biological tactic that may offer a new way to protect crops from insect plagues in a safe and environmentally responsible way.
Growing plants in a microscope is helping scientists to view roots developing in 3D and in real time.
In a new study, Brown University neuroscientists looked cell-by-cell at the brain circuitry that tadpoles, and possibly other animals, use to avoid collisions. The study produced a model of how individual inhibitory and excitatory neurons can work together to control a simple behavior.
Scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Florida have combined cookies, citizen science and robust research methods to track the diversity of ant species across the United States, and are now collaborating with international partners to get a global perspective on how ants are moving and surviving in the modern world.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) today (July 7) announced a $50 million gift from Jim and Marilyn Simons to establish the Simons Center for Quantitative Biology. The Center will support research and education programs at one of the world’s leading independent biomedical research institutions, a birthplace of molecular biology and one of the first institutions in the world to recognize the importance of quantitation in the life sciences.
About seven days after conception, something remarkable occurs in the clump of cells that will eventually become a new human being. They start to specialize. They take on characteristics that begin to hint at their ultimate fate as part of the skin, brain, muscle or any of the roughly 200 cell types that exist in people, and they start to form distinct layers.
Bacteria are a pervasive and elusive bunch. Scientists estimate that between 10 million and 1 billion different microbial species populate the world, yet only a handful of them have so far been identified. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of microbes refuse to grow in the laboratory. This is despite decades of scientists’ best efforts at coaxing the microscopic organisms into action.
Scientists advise caution with regard to artificial insemination method
Anesthesia makes otherwise painful procedures possible by derailing a conscious brain, rendering it incapable of sensing or responding to a surgeon’s knife. But little research exists on what happens when the drugs wear off.
Jose A. Olivares will present an overview of the technologies and processes that are needed to widely produce algae-based liquid transportation fuels.
New research reveals how the algae behind red tide thoroughly disables – but doesn’t kill – other species of algae. The study shows how chemical signaling between algae can trigger big changes in the marine ecosystem.
During the past few decades, the field of biology has dramatically expanded, incorporating many diverse sub-disciplines and specialty areas, such as microbiology and evolutionary biology. However, teaching biology to undergraduate students has not kept pace with the changes, and core biology curriculum varies widely from university to university and classroom to classroom.
