Features
Foundations

Animal Electricity, circa 1781
How an Italian scientist doing Frankenstein-like experiments on dead frogs discovered that the body is powered by electrical impulses.
Slideshows

Art + Science Now
The book that serves as bio art's encyclopedia.
Profiles

Beyond Expectation
Philippa “Pippa” Marrack has made some unanticipated discoveries about how the immune system functions in health and disease.
Scientist to Watch

Corina Tarnita: The Ant Mathematician
Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, Harvard University. Age: 28
The Literature

Amoebae Get Organized
Editor’s Choice in Developmental Biology

Piggyback Pathogen
Editor’s Choice in Immunology

Ribosomes in Control
Editor’s Choice in Cell Biology
Notebook

Octophilosophy
When it comes to studying cephalopod brains and behavior, it helps to have a philosopher around.

To Pee or Not to Pee
Have researchers found the seat of urination control in a primitive brain region?

Blood Simple
A veterinary vaccine spawned products that could clean the HIV virus from blood supplies.

Adapting to Climate Change
Indigenous populations are especially vulnerable to the effects of global climate change. A new research project aims to help them adapt.
Speaking of Science

Speaking of Science
September 2011's selection of notable quotes
Infographics

Molecular Learning
Long-term potentiation (LTP), discovered in the 1970s, was later shown to be the molecular basis of memory.

Lost in Space
Looking for a more realistic way to study memory, we turned to place cells—a network of cells that record a rat’s memory of an environment.

The Seat of Memory
Early on, researchers had learned that the hippocampus was the structure in the brain where long-term memories were created and stored, but it was not known whether the different cell types within this structure might be more or less susceptible to the aging process.

The Cytokine Cycle
The initiating cause of Alzheimer’s disease is still unknown. However, from our studies it’s clear that many types of neuronal damage—from traumatic brain injury, to epilepsy, infection, or genetic predisposition—can activate brain immune cells—microglia and astrocytes-- promoting them to produce IL-1 and S100 inflammatory cytokines.
Careers

Poster Perfect
How to drive home your science with a visually pleasing poster
Lab Tools

Speak, RNA
A trip through the transcriptome
Critic at Large

Vive la Différence
Measuring how individual cells differ from each other will enhance the predictive power of biology.
Editorial

Hold That Thought
In the memory circuits of the aging brain and the signaling pathways of pain, science is trading mystery for mastery.
Reading Frames

What Price Kindness?
Exposing the life and work of a visionary and troubled scientist opens a window onto the evolution of altruism.
Modus Operandi

Deep Tissue Treatment
A new, genetically encoded tag for electron microscopy may revolutionize studies of specific proteins in cells and tissues.
Capsule Reviews

Capsule Reviews
Art + Science Now, Signs of Life, Perceptions of Promise, Green Light
Contributors

Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the September 2011 issue of The Scientist.
Thought Experiment

Puncturing the Myth
Purinergic signaling, not mystical energy, may explain how acupuncture works.