30th Anniversary Issue

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.

From confocal fluorescence microscopy to super-resolution and live 3-D imaging, microscopes have changed rapidly since 1986.

Sequencing has gone from a laborious manual task costing thousands of dollars to a quick and cheap practice that is standard for many laboratories.

Imaging and manipulating the brain has come a long way from electrodes and the patch clamp, though such traditional tools remain essential.

Advances in genetic manipulation have simplified the once daunting task of rewriting a gene.

Since their introduction to the lab, pluripotent stem cells have gone from research tool to therapeutic, but the journey has been rocky.

Bacteria inhabit most tissues in the human body, and genes from some of these microbes have made their way to the human genome. Could this genetic transfer contribute to diseases such as cancer?