Issue | July/August 2017 | DNA Erector Sets

Home
The Scientist Magazine
July/August 2017

Features

Arun Richard Chandrasekaran | Jul 16, 2017 | 10+ min read

The versatility of geometric shapes made from the nucleic acid are proving useful in a wide variety of fields from molecular computation to biology to medicine.

Your Body Is Teeming with Weed Receptors

Megan Scudellari | Jul 16, 2017 | 10+ min read

And the same endocannabinoid system that translates marijuana's buzz-inducing compounds into a high plays crucial roles in health and disease outside the brain.

Uncovering Functions of Circular RNAs

Catherine Offord | Jul 16, 2017 | 10+ min read

Recent research has revealed many surprises about circular RNAs, from findings that they are translated in vivo to links between their expression and disease.

Contributors

Meet some of the people featured in the July/August issue of The Scientist.

Editorial

Twists and Turns

New starring roles for nucleic acids

Speaking of Science

Notable Science Quotes

The NIH budget, the nature of science, paternal age, and more

Notebook

The Evolutionary Roots of Instinct

Did behaviors that seem ingrained become fixed through epigenetic mechanisms and ancestral learning?

Mysterious Brain Waves May Connect REM Sleep with Visual Experiences

New methods could propel investigation of neural “PGO” wave patterns that may underlie critical aspects of visual experience, dreaming, and even psychosis.

Nine Decades of Environmental Change Resurrected From Swedish Seas

Scientists bring marine plankton back to life to study past climate change.

Recreating Fish Migration Written Through Environmental Genomics

Scientists examine floating traces of DNA left by fish to better understand New York’s aquatic life.

Critic at Large

Opinion: Address Taxonomic Skew

The domination of model organisms and charismatic megafauna in the literature is a disservice to the life sciences.

Modus Operandi

Microbiota Manipulations

Two research teams develop tools for tinkering with a bacterial genus prominent in human guts.

The Literature

Epigenetic Inheritance in Nematodes

The memory of a temperature spike can persist for as many as 14 generations in C. elegans.

Researchers Uncover Previously Unknown Immune Cell Subtypes

Using single-cell RNA sequencing, scientists characterize new populations of dendritic cells and monocytes.

The Unlikely Relationship Between a Brittle Star and a Sea Pansy

The presence of similar light-emitting enzymes in the distantly related organisms lends new insight into bioluminescence evolution.

Profile

Oceans’ Ambassador

Jane Lubchenco has embraced many roles: marine ecologist, science communicator, federal agency administrator, and sustainable fishing advocate.

Scientist to Watch

Emily Balskus Pins Down the Chemistry and Metabolism of Human Microbiomes

At Harvard University the chemical biologist looks for new metabolic pathways to investigate how gut bacteria interact with one another and their hosts.