Invisible Borders

Meet some of the people featured in the December 2018 issue of The Scientist.

Looking back at a year filled with discoveries and challenges.

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.

Like dogs and horses, goats can discern happy from angry facial expressions. But whether these animals possess empathy remains unclear.

A perception of sustained focus may actually be the result of cycles of fluctuating rather than continuous neural activity, according to new behavioral and neurological data from studies in humans and macaques.

After release from rehab, bottlenose Billie started walking on water with her tail. Studying how the behavior spread could offer clues about how animals learn from each other.

Scientists have found traces of the dairy product in 7,200-year-old pottery in Croatia.

Selected Images of the Day from the-scientist.com

Acoustic forces can be used to differentiate adherent from non-adherent cells.

Adipocytes lose their lipids and reprogram themselves into stem cells during lactation, then turn back into fat cells after pups wean.

Targeting the transient group of cells could prevent recurrence of the disease.

A higher species richness could boost plant communities’ ability to mitigate climate change, a study suggests.

Studying how neural crest cells journey through the embryo, this Caltech developmental biologist has revealed how they form major cell types, including peripheral neurons, bone, and smooth muscle.

The University of Kansas professor is also known for her leadership among early-career researchers.

Researchers describe their tools for probing how the physical shape of the genome affects genes’ function.

As Britain’s departure date from the European Union approaches, drugmakers are preparing for potential changes to regulatory procedures and border controls.

Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan’s new book recounts the tale of researchers striving to understand an ancient molecular machine that is essential for all life.

Bacteriologist Alice Evans identified the pathogen that causes undulant fever, leading her to push for the pasteurization of milk.

The physical principles that dictate the formation of these subcellular compartments are simple, but they dictate the organelles’ complex functions.

These icosahedral structures are composed of proteins with unique geometric properties, which enable bacteria to employ them in a variety of situations.

How acoustic waves let researchers measure whether, and how firmly, cells are bound to a substrate

See how the cells accommodate milk production in mouse mammary tissue.