Features
Contributors

Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the September 2013 issue of The Scientist.
Lab Tools

Sensing a Little Tension
Tools and techniques for measuring forces in living cells

Beauty, Science-Deep
Cosmetics companies use advanced genomics and in vitro technology to make skin look young and vibrant—you may never view the makeup aisle the same way again.
Capsule Reviews

Capsule Reviews
Rocket Girl, The Cancer Chronicles, Abominable Science!, and The Sports Gene
Bio Business

Remaking a Classic
Companies are bursting at the seams with tools to engineer pharma’s next magic bullet: the new and improved antibody.
Reading Frames

A New Way of Seeing
Inspiration and controversy attended the birth of magnetic resonance imaging, a diagnostic technology that changed the course of human medicine.
Foundations

Lords of the Fly, circa 1910
In a cramped lab overflowing with fruit flies, Thomas Hunt Morgan and his protégés made the discoveries that laid the foundations of modern genetics.
Scientist to Watch

Michael Smith: Biomechanic
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Boston University. Age: 37
Profiles

Coastal Command
From a tiny marine research center on the Louisiana coast, Nancy Rabalais has led the charge to map, understand, and reduce dangerous “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Literature

Microbial Fuel Factories
An archaeon takes the first steps toward making a liquid fuel from carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas.

Flexible Cells
When stretched, lung cells signal to each other by releasing ATP.

Shell Sculpture
A mathematical model explains the physical mechanisms behind the formation of seashell spines, an insight that could shed light on the convergent evolution of the trait.
Modus Operandi

Precision Epigenetics
Visualizing specific epigenetic marks at single gene loci is now possible in individual cells.
Thought Experiment

Why Women Lose Fertility
Mating behavior is an unlikely driver of women's reproductive aging.

Putting the Men in Menopause
Can mating behavior explain the evolution of menopause in humans?
Notebook

A Bone-Deep Kinship
A Neanderthal rib fragment provides conclusive evidence that the ancient hominins were susceptible to a benign bone tumor of modern humans.

A Farewell to Parasites
Despite a fierce civil war, scientists led a 14-year grassroots campaign that has eradicated a parasitic disease from northern Sudan.

A Hair-Raising Solution?
In the long-fought battle against baldness, researchers are finally identifying molecular pathways that can be manipulated to generate new hair follicles.

Cetacean Cacophony
Seafloor seismometers record hundreds of thousands of fin whale calls, allowing marine geophysicists to track the elusive marine mammals.
Speaking of Science

Speaking of Science
September 2013's selection of notable quotes
Editorial

You Are When You Eat
Circadian time zones and metabolism