Features
Foundations

The Body Electric, 1840s
Emil du Bois-Reymond’s innovations for recording electrical signals from living tissue set the stage for today’s neural monitoring techniques.
Lab Tools

Mouse Traps
How to avoid pitfalls in assays of mouse behavior

White’s the Matter
A basic guide to white matter imaging using diffusion MRI

Next-Gen Sequencing User Survey
Outsourcing is still the rule and data analysis, the bottleneck.
Scientist to Watch

Takaki Komiyama: Circuit Seeker
Assistant Professor, Neurobiology Section, University of California, San Diego. Age: 35
Profiles

Brains in Action
An inspiring lecturer turned Marcus Raichle’s focus from music and history to science. Since then, he has pioneered the use of imaging to study how our brains function.
The Literature

Mixed Signals
Individual neurons in the dorsomedial striatum integrate responses to sight and touch.

Mitochondria Munchers
Glial cells consume mitochondria released by neurons in the optic nerve.

Rhythmic Rewiring
Circadian neurons in fruit flies form synapses with different, noncircadian brain regions depending on the time of day.
Modus Operandi

Light-Operated Drugs
Scientists create a photosensitive pharmaceutical to target a glutamate receptor.
Reading Frames

Walking with Whales
The history of cetaceans can serve as a model for both evolutionary dynamics and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Careers

The Rules of Replication
Should there be standard protocols for how researchers attempt to reproduce the work of others?
Critic at Large

Enhanced Enhancers
The recent discovery of super-enhancers may offer new drug targets for a range of diseases.
Thought Experiment

The Ever-Transcendent Cell
Deriving physiologic first principles
Notebook

Uncommonly Rare
How one of the rarest neurodegenerative diseases could lend insight into ubiquitous neuroprotective processes

Seal Stowaways
Pathogen traces recovered from Peruvian mummies suggest tuberculosis-causing bacteria rode from Africa to South America in pinnipeds.

Brain Massage
Researchers may be able to improve memory by discharging magnetic pulses on the skull to alter the neural activity at and beneath the brain’s surface.

The Devil’s Details
With the iconic Australian marsupial carnivore on the brink of extinction, Tasmanian researchers race to unlock the immunological mysteries of a disease threatening the species.
Freeze Frame

Caught on Camera
Selected Images of the Day from www.the-scientist.com
Editorial

Cerebral Sleuths
For neuroscientists, experimental results converge to help crack the case of how the brain functions.
Speaking of Science

Speaking of Science
November 2014's selection of notable quotes
Contributors

Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the November 2014 issue of The Scientist.
Capsule Reviews

Capsule Reviews
Leonardo's Brain, The Future of the Brain, Dodging Extinction, and Arrival of the Fittest
Cover Story

A Face to Remember
Once dominated by correlational studies, face-perception research is moving into the realm of experimentation—and gaining tremendous insight.