The Scientist

Contributors

Meet some of the people featured in the March 2013 issue of The Scientist.

The Rebirth of DIYbio

Do-it-yourself science is likely as old as science itself, driven by an inherent curiosity about the world around us.

Speaking of Science

March 2013's selection of notable quotes

Sea Change

A normally land-based microbiologist sets sail to find the building blocks of novel antibiotics in marine bacteria.

Bacterial Buddies

A chance encounter with a crab apple tree leads to the discovery of a new bacterial species and clues to the evolution of insect endosymbionts.

Coral Clocks

Uranium dating of coral tools used by the earliest settlers of the South Pacific island kingdom of Tonga offers unprecedented precision in reconstructing their history.

Teenage Drug Hunter

An Oregon teenager spent a summer in a New York biochemistry lab helping to discover a novel molecule that could become the next commercial nonaddictive painkiller.

DIYbio: Low Risk, High Potential

Citizen scientists can inspire innovation and advance science education—and they are proving adept at self-policing.

Regulating Amateurs

How should the government ensure the safety and responsibility of do-it-yourself biologists?

Sticky Lithography

Scotch tape and a scalpel provide a MacGyver-esque approach to microfabrication.

Do-It-Yourself Medicine

Patients are sidestepping clinical research and using themselves as guinea pigs to test new treatments for fatal diseases. Will they hurt themselves, or science?

Bedeviled by Dengue

The global spread of dengue virus has immunologists and public-health experts debating the best way to curb infection.

Instant Messaging

During development, communication between organs determines their relative final size.

Crack Control

Nanoscale cracks in bone dissipate energy to protect against fracture, a process that appears to be regulated by the interaction of two proteins.

Antibiotic Bouncer

Contrary to previous assumptions that macrolide antibiotics completely block the exit tunnel of ribosomes, new evidence shows that some peptides are allowed to pass.

Sleep Protection

Inducing certain brain patterns extends non-REM sleep in mice.

Tough Bugger

Fearless cockroach hunter Coby Schal investigates how insects communicate via chemical cues, then subverts those signals for pest control.

Emily Scott: Enzyme Explorer

Associate Professor, Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas. Age: 43

Set It and Forget It

A tour of three systems for automating cell culture

Buying Cell-Culture Products

A survey of The Scientist readers reveals who buys cell-growth products from whom, and why.

DIY in the Lab

Things break in the lab. Here’s how to protect your equipment, and what to do when it stops working.

Biology Hacklabs

Fueled by donations, sweat, and occasional dumpster diving, community laboratories for DIY biologists are cropping up around the country.

CSI: Ancient Alexandria

A reexamination of the facts surrounding the death of Cleopatra VII reveals that the Egyptian queen was murdered—and not by an asp.

Capsule Reviews

The Undead, Frankenstein's Cat, The Universe Within, and Physics in Mind

A Sea Dragon Revealed, 1823

A sharp-eyed fossil prospector and self-taught paleontologist, Mary Anning discovered several extraordinary Mesozoic marine reptiles.