On a coffee break from the Methods in Computational Neuroscience class he codirects at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass., Bard Ermentrout is chatting with a student. It's unusually difficult to follow the conversation, because Ermentrout, a professor in the department of mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh, is talking entirely in equations – in near parody of most biologists' worst fears of a field populated largely by physicists and mathematicians. But de

TRANSLATING THE RIBOSOME:© 2003 Nature Publishing GroupJoachim Frank and colleagues used cryo-electron microscopy to generate this image of the ribosome bound to release factor RF2 in the presence of a stop codon and a P-site tRNA (left). Then the team overlaid an atomic model of RF2, derived from X-ray data (right; colored orange, purple, red, and green to distinguish domains I, II, III, and IV, respectively). (Reprinted with permission, U.B.S. Rawat et al., Nature, 421:87–90, 2003.)

Reuben Kaufman and graduate student Brian Weiss have found that for females, the secret to staying slim is staying virginal. Fortunately for males, human and otherwise, this works only if you're a special type of tick. Kaufman and Weiss have isolated the engorgement factor protein (EF) in the semen of the tick family ixodidae; this protein inspires gluttony in inseminated females. They have dubbed it "voraxin," from the Latin vorare, to devour.Tick blood lust is ghastly: Some can consume up to 4

NOMENCLATURE NEWS:Courtesy of Anton ReinerSchematic line drawings of transverse sections of the cerebrum in pigeon (first and last) and rat (middle), showing the outdated interpretation of cerebral organization and the outdated nomenclature for birds, the established interpretation of mammalian cerebral organization and nomenclature, and the current interpretation of the organization of avian cerebrum and new nomenclature. In each schematic, the yellow region represents pallium, the turquoise re

IMAGE OF AN ADULT FLY BRAIN:Courtesy of Diane O'DowdO'Dowd's team measured neuronal activity from the central brain region, which is flanked on either side by the visual lobes and eyes (red).Drosophila, the winged workhorse of biology, has reached another milestone. Recently several labs have recorded electrophysiological data from the fly's central nervous system (CNS) neurons. "Drosophila is one of the most powerful neurobiological model systems around. The only thing it lacked was direct acce

In the 1950s, a young psychiatrist sought an animal with neurons large enough for electrophysiology experiments on learning and memory. The animal, Aplysia californica, eventually got dissected in neurobiology labs around the world. The psychiatrist fared a little better; he was awarded the Nobel Prize.The tale of Eric Kandel and Aplysia, like that of Thomas Hunt Morgan and Drosophila or Sydney Brenner and Caenorhabditis elegans, has become a scientific bedtime story. The moral: Choose the right

Courtesy of CSHLWere you late getting that Valentine's Day gift? Not to fret: Buy double helix jewelry for your molecular biologist sweetheart. Cathy Cyphers Soref, a fundraiser for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), says the double helix is "as universal a symbol as the heart." And it looks just as lovely in diamonds.Soref has opened a store to benefit CSHL, called DNA Stuff http://www.DNAStuff.com. It sells DNA-themed items including jewelry and denim clothing that puns on "gene/jean." The

Science Source Researcher/Photo Researchers IncYou wouldn't think a molecule could become a piece of pop culture, but PBS is currently running another series on that J-Lo of molecules, DNA. The television version of James Watson's latest book DNA: The Secret of Life, ranges from familiar history to speculations about the future of genetic research. It began Jan. 4 and runs through Feb. 1.Watson, in Los Angeles to promote the show, says the series' narrator is actor Jeff Goldblum, who played Wats

"A [student] ther was of oxenford also ... Ful thredbare was his [overcoat] ... For hym was [rather] have at his beddes heed Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed, Of Aristotle and his philosophie, Than robes riche, or [fiddle], or gay psaltry." --Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, circa 1386 "I can understand why the faculty would want to wear sandals, but do they have to be flip-flops?" --Caltech postdoc, 2003 True, we now have teraflop computers instead of parchment, but in on

Courtesy of David Kleinfeld Many techniques for creating three-dimensional images of tissues have accompanying problems. Image reconstruction from serial tissue sections suffers because sections can warp as they dry, distorting the composite picture. Prolonged photoexcitation can bleach fluorescent dyes used to provide subcellular detail, eventually rendering the sections useless. And, even two-photon microscopy can reach only 100-600 microns deep into a sample. But a new crop of imaging tech

Courtesy of Edgeworx/A. Cross/J. Dunn for NOVA  SCIENTIST STAR Brian Greene uses special effects to initiate readers in string theory ABC Television turned the best-selling book Dinotopia, about a fantasy world where dinosaurs talk and play ping-pong, into a miniseries. The network celebrated by hosting a party at, of all places, the faculty club of the California Institute of Technology. The event featured network executives, celebrities, and an animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex. At least on

Courtesy of Christof Koch Scaling what climbers call "big wall," Yosemite's Half Dome appears impossible at the start: A rock face nearly 500 times taller than a person offers only shard-like holds and fingernail-thin cracks for support. But with talent, experience, and enormous focus and discipline, the big wall becomes a series of small, concentrated moves. The climber keeps focused, while the gawkers below admire his courage and question his sanity. California Institute of Technology profes