Cover Story

The neuronal coverings that mediate synaptic changes are involved in everything from memory to psychiatric disorders, affecting autism, Alzheimer’s, and addiction.

Research into the biological basis of gender identity is in its infancy, but clues are beginning to emerge.

New technologies reveal the dynamic changes in mouse and human embryos during the first week after fertilization.

No two neurons are alike. What does that mean for brain function?

A few kilograms of DNA could theoretically store all of humanity’s data, but there are practical challenges to overcome.

Scientists are beginning to unravel the mechanisms behind the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs.

Regularly taking breaks from eating—for hours or days—can trigger changes both expected, such as in metabolic dynamics and inflammation, and surprising, as in immune system function and cancer progression.

From fish harvests to cottonwood forests, organisms display evidence that species change can occur on timescales that can influence ecological processes.

Introducing genetic changes into mosquito populations could be key to effective malaria control.

Solving a long-standing structural puzzle will open the door to understanding one of the cell’s most enigmatic machines.

Since The Scientist published its first issue in October 1986, life-science research has transformed from a manual and often tedious task to a high-tech, largely automated process of unprecedented efficiency.

Knowing where our bodies are in space is critical for the control of our movements and for our sense of self.

In the planet’s warming and acidifying oceans, species from corals to lobsters and fish are succumbing to pathogenic infection.

Bits of the transcriptome once believed to function as RNA molecules are in fact translated into small proteins.

Why do so many human eggs have the wrong number of chromosomes?

Phage therapy to combat bacterial infections is garnering attention for the second time in 100 years, but solid clinical support for its widespread use is still lacking.

How one generation’s experience can affect the next

Researchers are borrowing designs from the natural world to advance biomedicine.

Increasingly precise remote-sensing data are helping researchers monitor and predict cases of infectious disease.