Loren Looger and Scott Sternson became collaborators, and fast friends, after coming to Janelia Farm as group leaders in 2006. By Looger’s account, their partnership might be science’s version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. read story
Scott Sternson has always wondered what drives behavior, especially those fundamental motivations required for survival. Hunger, for example, is so crucial that it must be evolutionarily “hard-wired” deep within the brain. After all, as Sternson observes, “if the animal doesn’t eat, it dies.” read story
About half of students who enter college with a science major in mind end up majoring in something else, observes Irving Epstein. The roadblock is often freshman chemistry class. read story
“Every morning we took a short walk to the local market for groceries. One day, on the way back, there was a thunderstorm, so we took shelter in a little shed. After the rain, I said, ‘Let’s go home now.’ I looked at my grandmother’s face and it was completely without expression. ‘Home?’ she asked. ‘Where is home?'” read in full issue (pdf)
Superbugs, the disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to even the most high-powered antibiotics, are becoming more commonplace. One dangerous strain called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), once restricted to hospital wards, is turning up in soccer fields and gym lockers. read in full issue (pdf)
Imagine your mechanic yanked the engine out of your car. You buckle up, turn the ignition, and off you drive, undoubtedly with a shattered notion of how automobiles work. That’s essentially what researchers led by HHMI investigator Pietro De Camilli experienced earlier this year when they eliminated a brain protein from mice thought to be an engine for transmitting nerve impulses. read in full issue (pdf)
Some lab mice can see the world in a whole new light, thanks to HHMI investigator Jeremy Nathans and his colleague Gerald H. Jacobs. Their findings provide insight into the remarkable plasticity of mammalian brains, and shed light on a plausible means by which humans may have acquired the ability to see many colors. read in full issue (pdf)
Elaine Fuchs used to do crossword puzzles as a diversion from her undergraduate studies. With crosswords, every solved clue creates new hints to help solve neighboring clues. Fuchs, an HHMI investigator at The Rockefeller University, has followed a similar approach throughout her professional life. By honing each experimental finding into a new set of tools, she has probed deeper into the question that first piqued her curiosity three decades ago. read in full issue (pdf)
Unlike your computer’s memory chips, whose circuits are etched into a solid slab of silicon, real brain circuits change shape as they learn. HHMI investigator Michael D. Ehlers and his colleagues at Duke University are themselves learning how neurons remold their connections, and they may have identified the brain’s favored sculpting tool.
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When it comes to replenishing lost body parts, some of our distant cousins can teach humans a thing or two. Zebrafish, for example, have no problem regenerating perfect tailfins after being nipped by an aquarium mate—or snipped by an inquisitive doctoral student, like the University of Washington’s Cristi Stoick-Cooper. read in full issue (pdf)