Issue | August 2005 | August 2005 | The Scientist Magazine®

Features

Alison McCook(amccook@the-scientist.com) | Aug 28, 2005 | 8 min read

As a graduate student at Stanford University in the early 1990s, Jonathan Eisen convinced a friend with access to one of the first automated DNA sequencers to run 10,000 base pairs for him.

Blast

Anne Harding(aharding@the-scientist.com) | Aug 28, 2005 | 8 min read

You've just cloned and sequenced a gene, but you don't know what it does.

The DNA Microarray

Lissa Harris(lharris@the-scientist.com) | Aug 28, 2005 | 8 min read

The late 1980s were heady days for molecular biologists.

The Yeast Two-hybrid Assay

Mark Greener(mgreener@the-scientist.com) | Aug 28, 2005 | 8 min read

No protein is an island.

Maldi

Aileen Constans(aconstans@the-scientist.com) | Aug 28, 2005 | 9 min read

that's the basic concept behind MALDI, an ionization technique developed in the late 1980s to enable mass spectrometric analysis of large biomolecules.

Microfluidics

Megan Stephan(mstephan@the-scientist.com) | Aug 28, 2005 | 8 min read

Jerry Radich is looking for a needle in a haystack, and he's counting on a microfluidics device to help him find it.

The Optical Trap

Don Monroe | Aug 28, 2005 | 8 min read

When Art Ashkin, Steve Chu, and their colleagues at Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ, first invented optical tweezers, they spent their days pushing around tiny, glass spheres.

About Us

Meet This Issue's Contributors

spent almost 20 years developing technology at Bell Labs.

Editorial

Seven Cheers for Technology

In 1986, the year in which the automated DNA sequencer was invented, GenBank held a scant 9.6 million bases.

Letter

Scientific knowledge as a public good

I greatly appreciate Dana Dalrymple's comments regarding the value of scientific knowledge as a public good.1 I want to point out another value of scientific research – that is, its role in education. Having students participate in research is not a new concept; indeed, this has long been the basis of graduate education and, at many institutions, research projects have served as capstone experiences for undergraduate science students. What is exciting is the way research is now being incor

Misrepresenting intelligent design

," based on a book I co-authored, Randall Kremer, the museum's director of public affairs commented, "The scientific content for the most part is accurate.

An "intelligent design thesis?"

A recent article on the situation about a PhD candidate at The Ohio State University, who is also a high school biology teacher, says the dissertation "pits evolutionary science against intelligent design" and involves high school students exposure to "whether evolution should be taught alongside intelligent design."1 I am on the dissertation committee and can say that the dissertation never mentioned intelligent design. Instead, it evaluated high school students' reactions to a state approved c

Central dogma: The clinical view

makes it clear that any form of current classical one-by-one gene status assessment will not be adequately informative to assess an actual patient's genetic risks.

Opinion

Why Do We Invoke Darwin?

Darwin's theory of evolution offers a sweeping explanation of the history of life, from the earliest microscopic organisms billions of years ago to all the plants and animals around us today.

Notebook

Bacteria hitch an ambulance ride

The average British ambulance is hardly what you'd call spacious, with an interior volume measuring about 12 cubic meters.

Venter buys history

J. Craig Venter's part in the race to sequence the human genome secured him a place in the history books.

Hi. You've got anthrax

Michelle Ledgister was hopping mad over losing a property tax exemption on a home she owns and rents out near Boca Raton, Fla.

How It Works

How It Works | Automated DNA Sequencer

Sequencers have come a long way since 1986.

How It Works | BLAST

It's common knowledge that BLAST's Web interface puts the power of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) on users' desktops.

How It Works | Microarray Scanner

Microarrays are nothing without their scanners, the instruments that extract the array's data in computer-readable form.

How It Works | Yeast Two-Hybrid Assay

The ultimate realization of the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assay is the interactome.

How It Works | MALDI-TOF/TOF

It's been 20 years since Hillenkamp and Karas developed MALDI.

How It Works | Lab-on-a-Chip

With their tiny reaction volumes and parallel architecture, lab-on-a-chip systems promise to lower the cost and raise the quality of life science research.

How It Works | Optical Trap

Unlike the other technologies highlighted in this issue, optical trapping systems are not typically purchased off-the-shelf.

Reverse Transcript

Rebel with a Lab

Bruce Lahn has always been something of a rebel.