Features

Psychedelics are evolutionarily ancient compounds produced by fungi, plants, and microbes. Humans also synthesize psychedelics. Researchers want to know how and why.

We have barely scratched the surface of itch science and what it indicates about our health.

A renaissance in natural language modeling may help researchers explore how the brain extracts and organizes meaning.

To understand how memories are formed and maintained, neuroscientists travel far beyond the cell body in search of answers.

Biofilms are home to millions of microbes, but disrupting their interactions could produce more effective antibiotics.

Bacteria cooperate to benefit the collective, but cheaters can rig the system. How is the balance maintained?

Synonymous mutations have long been ignored in cancer studies since they don’t affect the amino acid sequences of proteins. But research increasingly reveals that they can have disease-driving effects.

A more complete understanding of nonrandom segregation will shed light on how speciation occurs.

Noncoding RNAs and microproteins, once considered genomic noise, are turning out to be critical to the progression of some types of cancer.

Transposons may be key players in how tumors develop and spread, but they also keep cancer at bay in some circumstances.

Splitting Chinook salmon into two groups based on their DNA could aid conservation efforts. But some researchers argue that this would be a misuse of the data.

The myriad species floating atop the world’s seas, called neuston, are mysterious and understudied, complicating efforts to clean up plastic pollution.

This year’s crop of winning products features many with a clinical focus and others that represent significant advances in sequencing, single-cell analysis, and more.

Scientists studying pathogens such as Chlamydia, Legionella, and Listeria get a master class in how to control the internal workings of mammalian cells.

Aberrant immune activation, the main cause of prematurity and stillbirths, could be preventable through interventions such as maternal vaccination. 

Evidence is mounting that epigenetic marks on DNA can influence future generations in a variety of ways. But how such phenomena might affect large-scale evolutionary processes is hotly debated.

Despite recent advances in the study of eukaryogenesis, much remains unresolved about the origin and evolution of the most complex domain of life.

All multicellular creatures interact with bacteria, but some have taken the relationship to another level with highly specialized structures that house, feed, and exploit the tiny organisms.

Noncoding RNAs are proving to be critical players in the evolution of brain anatomy and cognitive complexity.