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
DNA microarray analysis is one of the fastest-growing new technologies in the field of genetic research. Scientists are using DNA microarrays to investigate everything from cancer to pest control. Now you can do your own DNA microarray experiment! Here you will use a DNA microarray to investigate the differences between a healthy cell and a cancer cell. virtual lab
PCR is a relatively simple and inexpensive tool that you can use to focus in on a segment of DNA and copy it billions of times over. PCR is used every day to diagnose diseases, identify bacteria and viruses, match criminals to crime scenes, and in many other ways. Step up to the virtual lab bench and see how it works! virtual lab
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)
Rock pocket mice are common denizens of the Sonoran desert regions around Tucson, but you’ll probably never see one in the wild. The small rodents are strictly nocturnal, finding refuge from the daytime desert heat in their underground burrows. By night, they gather seeds, their only source of food and water, and do their best to elude owls, their main predators. Now, these inconspicuous animals may have gained some celebrity as a textbook example of adaptation by natural selection, thanks to a team of University of Arizona evolutionary biologists. read story
Living cells have “molecular paper shredders” that purge outdated genetic instructions. The subcellular structures were discovered by Ujwal Sheth, a University of Arizona Ph.D. candidate in molecular and cellular biology, and her advisor, Regents’ Professor Roy Parker. The pair reported their findings this week in the journal Science. read story