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A biochemist recalls his discovery of antibiotics that disrupt a cell's metabolic processes

Winners of scientific image competition coming to big screen in Times Square

1854 journal belonging to E.R. Squibb, which includes his development of an ether-distilling process, as well as daily entries with descriptions of his laboratory work. A fire in 1858 in Squibb's laboratory damaged the journal.Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Photo: © Jason varney | Varneyphoto.com Before Edward R. Squibb (1819-1900) founded the drug company that bore his n

Credit: © Edward Kinsman / Photo Researchers, Inc." /> Credit: © Edward Kinsman / Photo Researchers, Inc. You might say that Charles Kerfoot, an ecologist at Michigan Technological University, can raise the dead. The crustacean eggs that Kerfoot reanimates in his laboratory technically have no perceptible metabolism, so by a strict physiologic definition, they are, essentially, not living. But Kerfoot manages to hatch living crustaceans from these eggs, some of whom have be

Credit: © istockphoto.com / Oleg Kozlov" /> Credit: © istockphoto.com / Oleg Kozlov Was Kate Moss on to something? In 2006 the BBC reported that the supermodel and sometimes drug user was getting acupuncture to combat her cravings. "People say it seems to work," says Kenneth Kwong, at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Now, Kwong and his colleagues think they might know why. Acupuncture is thought to release beta-endorphins, which have analgesic effects - something

One day last summer, a customer service representative for a company called Crystalite Salt received a phone call from Jennifer Lardge, a physicist. Lardge was curious about the science behind one of their products: lumps of salt, called lamps, that are meant to improve your health when they are heated. "I was looking at your Web site and I was just wondering about how salt lamps actually work," Lardge said. "Right," responded the Crystalite Salt customer service representativ

Tunisians (above) come from an interesting gene pool. Credit: wikimedia.org" />Tunisians (above) come from an interesting gene pool. Credit: wikimedia.org In the 1960s, Habiba Chaabouni was one of a handful of women enrolled in medical school in Tunisia. There, she often met families with two or three sick children. "There was a lot of chronic disease," she recalls, and she wanted to find out why. In some ways, Tunisia is a geneticist's paradise. The native population primarily d

A virologist recalls his work on cell growth inhibition

For an upcoming Lab Tools article, tell us how you've tackled your trickiest PCR

Can a company harness stem cells to treat injured horses?

A biochemist describes an electron microscopy technique that allowed him to visualize condensing DNA

A new PBS documentary tells the troubled story of a doctor who performed nearly 3,000 lobotomies