Investigators put deletions on the map of human genetic variation.

Credit: © Dr Gopal Murti / Photo Researchers, Inc." /> Credit: © Dr Gopal Murti / Photo Researchers, Inc. The paper: M. Certo et al., "Mitochondria primed by death signals determine cellular addiction to anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family members," Cancer Cell, 9:351-65, 2006. (Cited in 116 papers) The finding: Anthony Letai's team at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Samples of the correspondence Credit: Courtesy of the Mendelianum, Brno, Czech Republic." />Samples of the correspondence Credit: Courtesy of the Mendelianum, Brno, Czech Republic. On New Year's Eve, 1866, Gregor Mendel wrote to the prominent Swiss botanist Carl Nägeli to tell him about his now classic experiments with Pisum peas. In the margins of the letter, Nägeli scribbled a note: "only empirical and not rational."

The Making of Max Planck By Elie DolginIn 1945, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, Germany's premier science research institution, was in tatters. It was even at risk of being axed after the Second World War, but leading German scientists convinced the allies to rebuild and rebrand the renowned research organization. So an 86- year-old Max Planck once again assumed the presidency, after the Nazi regime forced him from the post in 1937. As part of the society's makeover, Planck, the

The Amazon molly Credit: Courtesy of Kathrin Lampert" />The Amazon molly Credit: Courtesy of Kathrin Lampert In 1932, two University of Michigan fish ecologists, Carl and Laura Hubbs, reported in Science that they had the first experimental proof of a clonally reproducing vertebrate. What they found in the lakes and streams of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas was a smal

Credit: © Cell Press" /> Credit: © Cell Press The paper: X. Zhang et al., "Genome-wide high-resolution mapping and functional analysis of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis," Cell, 126:1189-201, 2006. (Cited in 94 papers) The finding: The researchers created a Web tool to view the DNA methylation and gene expression data. "It's extremely useful,"

Credit: © Nick Burchell" /> Credit: © Nick Burchell In November 1998, Martin Burke was on his first clinical rotation in the MD/PhD program at Harvard Medical School when he met a 22-year-old cystic fibrosis patient who was taking 17 different medications. Knowing that a single missing chloride channel causes the disease, it bothered Burke that the treatment comprised such a large cocktai

So you're a principal investigator - now what?

Torch Ginger flower in which a new species of Caenorhabditis was found. Credit: Courtesy of Valérie Robert" />Torch Ginger flower in which a new species of Caenorhabditis was found. Credit: Courtesy of Valérie Robert In December 2007, Marie-Anne Félix was taking a small cruise along the southwestern coast of India when she found herself docked in a remote lagoon in the backwate

Ravi Allada (left) and Kevin Keegan (right) getting into the rhythm of their analysis. Credit: Courtesy of Ravi Allada" />Ravi Allada (left) and Kevin Keegan (right) getting into the rhythm of their analysis. Credit: Courtesy of Ravi Allada In October 2004, just as the clocks were changing in Illinois, the focus of Kevin Keegan's graduate work on circadian clocks was changing, too. Keegan, a

Credit: Courtesy of Jonathan Pritchard / Public Library of Science" /> Credit: Courtesy of Jonathan Pritchard / Public Library of Science The paper: B.F. Voight et al., "A map of recent positive selection in the human genome," PLoS Biology, 4:446-58, 2006. (Cited in 138 papers) The finding: In 2006, Jonatha

Credit: Courtesy of Jane Elith" /> Credit: Courtesy of Jane Elith The paper: J. Elith et al., "Novel methods improve predictions of species' distributions from occurrence data," Ecography, 29:129-51, 2006. (Cited in 128 papers) The finding: Jane Elith of the University of Melbourne and Catherine Graham of SUNY Stony Brook led the te