March 2012

Chemical ecologist Max Suckling at the Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd., and summer student Rachael Sagar use Pavlovian conditioning to train bees to stick out their tongues, or proboscises, at the scent of odors produced by tuberculosis-causing bacteria.

Take a tour through the revolutionary menthod's past, present, and future.

Meet some of the people featured in the March 2012 issue of The Scientist.

The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess, The Forever Fix, Connectome, and DNA USA

A lot changes in a child’s body over the course of development, and not all changes occur linearly: gene expression can fluctuate, and organs can perform different functions on the way to their final purpose in the body. Here are some of the key deve

Vitamin D has a variety of actions in the body. It binds to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), which then binds to the retinoid X receptor (RXR) and activates the expression of numerous genes. 

The Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) of 2003 requires that companies developing new drugs that could be used to treat a condition in children perform clinical trials in kids before winning FDA approval. 

Despite nervous investors and a volatile market, a courageous few biotechnology companies are taking their chances on Wall Street.

Principal Investigator, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Age: 44

March 2012's selection of notable quotes

Using RNA viruses to silence genes could optimize tissue targeting while reducing toxicity.

Editor's choice in developmental biology

Editor's choice in immunology

Editor's choice in biochemistry

Two researchers are trying to train bees to sniff out tuberculosis.

Forget stamps: one bioengineer amasses broken artificial joints to learn why they failed and how to build better ones.

An anthropologist and a herpetologist join forces to reveal the complex shared evolutionary and ecological history of pythons and primates.

A National Zoo researcher works to perfect gamete preservation and in vitro fertilization techniques in order to better manage endangered populations.

Studies on safety, efficacy, or dosing of drugs in children, or on nutritional supplements, are not run-of-the-mill.

Some thoughts about the ecological fallout from Fukushima

Pierre Comizzoli, a reproductive physiologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, chats about his efforts to rescue endangered species from extinction using in vitro fertilization as well as novel gamete preservation techniques.

The first electron microscope to peer into an intact cell ushers in the new field of cell biology.

A guided tour through the main online resources for analyzing cancer genomics data

With an eye to understanding animal regeneration, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado has turned a freshwater planarian into a model system to watch.

Manipulating the human microbiome has ethical implications.

Conspiracy theories surrounding the global HIV/AIDS epidemic have cost thousands of lives. But science is fighting back.