Disease on the Wing

Meet some of the people featured in the December 2014 issue of The Scientist.

Understanding animal diseases—for their sake and for ours

December 2014's selection of notable quotes

Researchers are turning to venom peptides to protect crops from their most devastating pests.

A miniature platform with multiple organ-on-a-chip constructs aims to speed up drug discovery—and create better transplants for patients.

The guts of cows and termites harbor microbes that are renowned complex-carbohydrate digesters, but the human gastrointestinal tract has flora that just might measure up.

Genomics and advanced reproductive technologies have turned cattle breeding into a whole new animal.

As new technologies emerge, we must choose our words for them with care: names can negatively bias the inevitable debates over the ethics of scientific advances.

With scientific funding on shaky ground, big-dollar competitions offer a new way for life-science innovators to bring their ideas to fruition.

Scientists make hydrogel coats for individual cells that can be tailored to specific research questions.

Bats harbor diverse pathogens, including Ebola, Marburg, SARS, and MERS viruses. Understanding why could help researchers stymie deadly emerging diseases.

A multitasking plasma membrane protein coordinates cell division and energy metabolism in healthy—and perhaps also cancerous—Drosophila cells.

Researchers discover a new subunit of a bacterial RNA polymerase—as well as hints of its potential role in defending against viruses.

A known membrane-remodeling complex earns a newly identified role as a quality-assurance director during the assembly of nuclear pores.

Alan Aderem earned his PhD while under house arrest for protesting apartheid in South Africa. His early political involvement has guided his scientific focus, encouraging fellow systems biologists to study immunology and infectious diseases.

Assistant Professor, Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Caltech. Age: 33

Optical techniques for monitoring action potentials

A guide to affordable, compact fluorescence-activated cell sorters

Highlights from a webinar held by The Scientist to discuss the role of antibody validation and cataloging in improving data reproducibility

As medical marijuana businesses set up shop across the U.S., a handful of companies are taking the pharmaceutical route, guiding cannabis-derived drugs through clinical trials.

Early life-forms started engaging in planet-altering biological innovation more than a half billion years ago.

Your Atomic Self, Eureka!, A Talent for Friendship, and Undeniable

A spring cleaning led to the rediscovery of Theodor Boveri’s microscope slides, presumed lost during World War II.