Nature as Muse

Meet some of the people featured in the August 2015 issue of The Scientist.

The animal world is full of clever solutions to bioengineering challenges.

August 2015's selection of notable quotes

Selected Images of the Day from the-scientist.com

Understanding the genetics of stem cell population maintenance in plants producing jumbo tomatoes could help scientists generate more-massive fruits.

Donated organs are helping researchers map out the immune system in humans.

Eighteenth-century DNA sequences yield insights into the history of tuberculosis infections.

A die-off of newborn lambs in Australia leads to the discovery of a new toxin and clues to a devastating liver disease in children.

Researchers studying the use of bacteria and plants to remove toxins from the soil must better communicate their results if they want their techniques to be used by practitioners in the field.

Tens of thousands of individual cells can have their transcriptomes analyzed simultaneously thanks to two new techniques.

Researchers are borrowing designs from the natural world to advance biomedicine.

Four studies identify alternative origins for cells of the developing lymphatic system, challenging the long-standing view that they all come from veins.

Among the first to discover epigenetic reprogramming during mammalian development, Wolf Reik has been studying the dynamics of the epigenome for 30 years.

Assistant Professor, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Houston. Age: 35

After spending more than a decade developing tools to study patterns in gene sequences, bioinformaticians are now working on programs to analyze epigenomics data.

DIY tips for adding coding to your analysis arsenal

Can mice with humanlike tissues better model drug effects in people?

Does a delicately orchestrated balance between quantum and classical physics distinguish living from nonliving things?

Gods of the Morning, Hedonic Eating, A Beautiful Question, and Genomic Messages

This year marks the 150th anniversary of an autopsy report describing the first known case of a sexual development disorder.