An open mind and collaborative spirit have taken Hans Clevers on a journey from medicine to developmental biology, gastroenterology, cancer, and stem cells.

Animals with human cells could provide donor organs or help us understand neuropsychiatric disorders.

Studying the earliest events in visual development, Carla Shatz has learned the importance of looking at one’s data with open eyes—and an open mind.

When I was a high school student, I came across Erwin Schrödingers What Is Life?. I still remember my exultant reaction—a combination of adolescent pride in feeling able to understand ideas considered beyond a young person’s means, and a genuine intellectual thrill engendered by the problems that Schrödinger addressed. Upon rereading the book, it appears to me that its major value was to provoke interest in a central problem of biology. Schrödinger’s question

Conversations between the immune and central nervous systems are proving to be essential for the healthy social behavior, learning, and memory.

Stress and telomere length in children; osmotic channel protein identified; amoeba nibbles, then kills cells; amphetamine and mental disorder risk; news from AACR

Chairman: Arnold Levine, chairman, department of molecular biology, Princeton University Barry Bloom, Weinstock Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, department of microbiology and immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York Rebecca Buckley, professor of pediatrics and immunology, Duke University Medical Center Charles Carpenter, chairman, Office of AIDS Research Advisory Committee; professor of medicine,Brown University School of Medicine Don

By Jeffrey M. Perkel Surpassing the Law of Averages How to expose the behaviors of genes, RNA, proteins, and metabolites in single cells. By necessity or convenience, almost everything we know about biochemistry and molecular biology derives from bulk behavior: From gene regulation to Michaelis-Menten kinetics, we understand biology in terms of what the “average” cell in a population does. But, as Jonathan Weissman of the University of Califo

By Judy Lieberman Master of the Cell RNA interference, with its powerful promise of therapy for many diseases, may also act as a master regulator of most—if not all—cellular processes. RNA silencing. Computer artwork showing a length of RNA (yellow with red rings) bound to an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). © Medi-Mation Ltd / Photo Researchers, Inc. ne of the biggest surprises in biology in the past d

Four studies identify alternative origins for cells of the developing lymphatic system, challenging the long-standing view that they all come from veins.