
Features
Infographics

Infographic: Researchers Take Aim at Cancer Evolution
Strategies to trick, manipulate, and direct the evolution of tumors

Infographic: Building Bacteria to Fight Cancer
Researchers are engineering microbes to deliver therapeutics specifically to tumors, maximizing the treatments’ efficacy while minimizing side effects.

Infographic: Exercise’s Anticancer Mechanisms
A look at the molecular processes that may feed into the tumor-fighting effects of physical activity

Infographic: CRISPR’d Cancer
Researchers use a new way to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 to tumors in mice, wiping out the cancer.

Infographic: Transfection by Precision Cell Piercing
A microfluidic device creates a single hole in each cell to allow efficient DNA entry without compromising viability.
Reading Frames

Did Human Evolution Include a Semi-Aquatic Phase?
A recent book outlines fossil evidence supporting the controversial hypothesis.
Foundations

Ideal Patients, 1896–Present
Advances in imaging technology over the last century have allowed increasingly sophisticated glimpses into the ancient processes of mummification.
Scientist to Watch

Hadiyah-Nicole Green Targets Cancer With Lasers
Spurred by family tragedy, the medical physicist wants to treat cancer in a new way.
Profiles

Cracking Down on Cancer: A Profile of Owen Witte
Through his studies on cancer-causing viruses, the University of California, Los Angeles, professor has helped develop lifesaving treatments.
The Literature

A Trick that Helps Horses and Cattle Avoid Metastatic Cancer
Researchers find connective tissue has a crucial role to play in whether cancer cells metastasize.

Zika as Cancer Buster?
By infecting glioblastoma cells but not healthy brain tissue, some form of the virus could serve a therapeutic purpose.

CRISPR Quashes Cancer in Mice
Gene editing can knock out genes crucial to cervical tumor cells’ survival, researchers report.
Notebook

Forest Fungi Ride Out Wildfires by Hiding Inside Plants
Researchers uncover the “body-snatching” tactics of fungi that flourish immediately after wildfires.

Flu Shot Ignites Immune Attack Against Cancer in Mice
Injecting the seasonal flu vaccine directly into clumps of malignant cells recruits immune cells to confront the cancer.

Colon Cancer Uses a Regenerative Playbook to Metastasize
A study finds similarities between cells that heal wounds and those that lead deadly cancerous invasions.

Laser-Triggered Nanobubbles Blast a Path into Biofilms
Researchers could one day use the method to deliver antibiotics to topical wounds infected by hard-to-treat masses of bacteria.
Bio Business

Natural Killer Cell Therapies Catch Up to CAR T
There’s a new cell-based cancer immunotherapy on the block.
Critic at Large

Opinion: We Still Lack Evidence that Cannabis Treats Cancer Pain
Only an equal mixture of THC and CBD has been adequately tested, and it failed to alleviate pain in cancer patients.
Editorial

Singing the Praises of Prevention
Ben Franklin was right. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Contributors

Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the April 2020 issue of The Scientist.
Speaking of Science

Ten Minute Sabbatical
Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.
Modus Operandi

Precision Membrane Puncture Enables Efficient Cell Transfection
A device for piercing individual holes in cell membranes allows vector-free DNA delivery while maintaining cell viability.