Cover Story
What’s Old Is New Again
Bob Grant | Jun 1, 2015 | 10+ min read
Revolutionary new methods for extracting, purifying, and sequencing ever-more-ancient DNA have opened an unprecedented window into the history of life on Earth.
Features
The Living Set
Wim Hordijk | Jun 1, 2015 | 10+ min read
Mathematical and computational approaches are making strides in understanding how life might have emerged and organized itself from the basic chemistry of early Earth.
Seeing Isn’t Believing
Stuart Anstis | Jun 1, 2015 | 10+ min read
How motion illusions trick the visual system, and what they can teach us about how our eyes and brains evolved
Contributors
Contributors
Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the June 2015 issue of The Scientist.
Editorial
New Legs to Stand On
New Legs to Stand On
Reconstructing the past using ancient DNA
Speaking of Science
Speaking of Science
Speaking of Science
June 2015's selection of notable quotes
Notebook
A Plague on Pachyderms
A Plague on Pachyderms
At least seven species of herpesvirus commonly infect elephants. At zoos, keepers scramble to save calves, who are particularly vulnerable to the viruses.
Touchy Feely
Touchy Feely
Physical contact helps determine who’s present among baboons’ gut bacteria.
Memorial Research
Memorial Research
Texas Tech undergraduate students band together to conduct research in remembrance of a classmate.
Adapting to Arsenic
Adapting to Arsenic
Andean communities may have evolved the ability to metabolize arsenic, a trait that could be the first documented example of a toxic substance acting as an agent of natural selection in humans.
Critic at Large
Improving Crops with RNAi
Improving Crops with RNAi
RNA interference is proving to be a valuable tool for agriculture, allowing researchers to develop pathogen-resistant and more-nutritious crops.
Turning Data into Discovery
Turning Data into Discovery
To make the most of the current data deluge, we must reward interdisciplinary researchers who identify and apply the most appropriate analysis methods.
Modus Operandi
RNA Stucturomics
RNA Stucturomics
A new high-throughput, transcriptome-wide assay determines RNA structures in vivo.
The Literature
Silencing Surprise
Silencing Surprise
A chromatin remodeler in embryonic stem cells clears the DNA for mRNA transcription while stifling the expression of noncoding transcripts.
Not So Noncoding
Not So Noncoding
An RNA thought to be noncoding in fact encodes a small protein that regulates calcium uptake in muscle.
New Immunity
New Immunity
A scaffolding protein forms the hub of a newly identified immune pathway in plants.
Profiles
Resistance Fighter
Resistance Fighter
Stuart Levy has spent a lifetime studying mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and crusading to abolish the use of antibiotics in animal feed.
Scientist to Watch
William Greenleaf: Born for Biophysics
William Greenleaf: Born for Biophysics
Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Stanford University. Age: 35
Lab Tools
Flow Cytometry On-a-Chip
Flow Cytometry On-a-Chip
Novel microfluidic devices give researchers new ways to count and sort single cells.
An Array of Options
An Array of Options
A guide for how and when to transition from the microarray to RNA-seq
Bio Business
Clinical Matchmaker
Clinical Matchmaker
Enrolling the right patient population could be key to a successful clinical trial.
Reading Frames
Reimagining Humanity
Reimagining Humanity
As the science of paleoanthropology developed, human evolutionary trees changed as much as the minds that constructed them.
Capsule Reviews
Capsule Reviews
Capsule Reviews
How to Clone a Mammoth, The Upright Thinkers, The Thirteenth Step, and Humankind
Foundations
Water Fleas, 1755
Water Fleas, 1755
A German naturalist trains a keen eye and a microscope on a tiny crustacean to unlock its secrets.