Notebook Articles - microbiology and genetics | The Scientist Magazine®| Page 2

Cat Cravings

By Jef Akst | January 1, 2012

A mutated feline receptor for sweet tastes explains why cats don’t love sugar but do dig mushrooms.

The story of a group of high school students who, with the help of a Rockefeller University researcher, conducted and published studies on the biological provenance of sushi and teas from around New York City.

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C-ing with the Lights Out

By Richard P. Grant | July 1, 2011

I the dark Arctic shallows one research finds heterotrophic marine bacteria doing a surprising amount of carbon fixing.

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Trading Pelts for Pestilence

By Jef Akst | July 1, 2011

When European explorers and fishermen began to frequent Canada’s shores in the 16th century, they brought with them a plethora of tools and trinkets, including knives, axes, kettles, and blankets. The region’s indigenous people traded the Europeans f

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One Bad Apple

By Richard P. Grant | June 24, 2011

A unique virus and the worm it infects turn up in an orchard outside of Paris.

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Lobster-Pot Science

By Richard P. Grant | May 1, 2011

Building tiny houses to study how bacteria behave in natural environments

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Micro Farmers

By Cristina Luiggi | May 1, 2011

Dustin Rubenstein discusses how the discovery of amoebas that farm their own food links the development of agriculture with the evolution of social behavior.

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Family Affair

By Megan Scudellari | April 1, 2011

In discovering their shared ancestry, a distantly related animal geneticist and plant pathologist find a common thread in their work on immune receptors.

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Taking Shape

By Richard P. Grant | April 1, 2011

Floral bouquets are the most ephemeral of presents. The puzzle of how flowers get their shape, however, is more enduring. It’s a question that has kept Enrico Coen, a plant biologist at the John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom, busy for more than

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