Max Delbrück, the physicist-turned-biologist who became a founding father of molecular biology, often told his students that “if you have to use statistics to interpret your experimental results, they can’t be true.” read in full issue (pdf)
At a recent seminar, HHMI investigator Larry Goldstein flashed a slide of Godzilla, the monster of Japanese sci-fi, towering over a cityscape, devouring a string of railroad cars. The next slide showed Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian, bedecked in fur loincloth and sword, muscles bulging. read in full issue (pdf)
Sidebar: Conducting the Choir
When it comes to getting a start in this world, flies don’t dillydally. After fertilization, a one-celled egg in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) takes but three hours to develop into a hollow oval containing some 8,000 cells. Ten minutes later, sheets of cells from the edge of the sphere stream into the center, establishing what will become Drosophila’s internal tissues and organs. In less than a day, the tiny fly larva works its way out from its eggshell. read in full issue (pdf)
Scientists have known for some time that certain genes affect the way our shapes ultimately shape up–how we develop physically. Now, researchers have pinpointed two families of genes suspected of playing a central role in the “master Plan” of how vertebrate skeletons are sculpted. read in full issue (pdf)
Killing the messenger may well be essential to a cell’s vitality. HHMI investigator Roy Parker says that destroying mRNAs is one of the quickest, surest ways for a cell to revise its fundamental purpose and moment-by-moment agenda. read in full issue (pdf)
Having recently retired to the Southwest, biochemist Stanley Cohen was getting restless. Cactus gardening, he soon came to learn, requires only so much attention, and he missed the kind of personal interactions he had in his lab back at Vanderbilt University. read in full issue (pdf)
One of Sheng Ding’s favorite activities outside the lab is scrambling up the twisted granite boulders of Southern California’s Joshua Tree National Park. By finding just the right combination of grips, foot placements, and body English, Ding can mold his body to the cracks and outcroppings, surmounting virtually any obstacle he encounters. read in full issue (pdf)