Features
A Nose for Touch
Kenneth C. Catania | Sep 1, 2012 | 10 min read
The remarkable ability of the star-nosed mole to interpret its surroundings through touch is yielding clues about mammalian sensory processing in general.
Pleasant to the Touch
Sabrina Richards | Sep 1, 2012 | 9 min read
Scientists hope an understanding of nerve fibers responsive only to gentle touch will give insight into the role the sense plays in social bonding.
Missing Touch
Megan Scudellari | Sep 1, 2012 | 10+ min read
Bionic fingers. Rewired nerves. Science fiction becomes reality as scientists attempt to give prosthetics a sense of touch.
Editorial
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility
Why is tactile perception so fundamental to life?
Speaking of Science
Speaking of Science
Speaking of Science
September 2012's selection of notable quotes
Notebook
Good Vibrations
Good Vibrations
Researchers are learning how species from across the animal kingdom use seismic signals to mate, hunt, solve territorial disputes, and much more.
Down and Dirty
Down and Dirty
Diverse plant communities create a disease-fighting "soil genotype."
Get a Whiff of This
Get a Whiff of This
Can electronic noses come close to the real thing?
Gifted in Science
Gifted in Science
Researchers look to the emerging phenomenon of "crowdfunding" to pay for their work
Thought Experiment
The Pliable Brain
The Pliable Brain
Altered touch perception in deaf people may reveal individual differences in brain plasticity.
Critic at Large
Stress Tests
Stress Tests
Judiciously applied pressure could benefit the scientific system by providing an opportunity for renewal.
Modus Operandi
The Inside Scoop
The Inside Scoop
Probing cells with nanometer-scale electrodes
The Literature
A Good Night’s Sleep
A Good Night’s Sleep
Sleep-wake cycles affect how well our bodies fight disease.
Finding Injury
Finding Injury
The brain’s phagocytes follow an ATP bread trail laid down by calcium waves to the site of damage.
Flu Fights Dirty
Flu Fights Dirty
Mimicking a host-cell histone protein offers flu a sneaky tactic to suppress immune response.
Profiles
Taking the Long View
Taking the Long View
In exploring how embryos take shape, John Wallingford has identified a key pathway involved in vertebrate development—and human disease.
Scientist to Watch
Kartik Chandran: Chemistry Kid
Kartik Chandran: Chemistry Kid
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Age: 38
Lab Tools
Stemming the Toxic Tide
Stemming the Toxic Tide
How to screen for toxicity using stem cells
Enter the Third Dimension
Enter the Third Dimension
Cell culture goes 3-D with devices that better mimic in vivo conditions.
Bio Business
Sharing Made Easy
Sharing Made Easy
Biological resource centers are bigger and better than ever before, storing and distributing shared reagents, plasmids, and more.
Reading Frames
A Story Biological
A Story Biological
Using scientific information as narrative can be a powerful way to communicate.
Foundations
Life on the Ocean Floor, 1977
Life on the Ocean Floor, 1977
The discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Galápagos Rift revealed a biological Garden of Eden.
Contributors
Contributors
Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the September 2012 issue of The Scientist.
Capsule Reviews
Capsule Reviews
Capsule Reviews
Wired for Story, Dreamland, Homo Mysterious, and Vagina
Slideshows
Bottom Dwellers
Bottom Dwellers
See some of the images brought up from early trips to the Galápagos Rift, where an ecosystem thrives around hydrothermal vents.
Of Frogs and Embryos
Of Frogs and Embryos
Associate Professor in Molecular Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, John Wallingford, makes his living using cutting-edge microscopic techniques to watch developmental events unfold in real time.
Robo Touch
Robo Touch
Because of a lack of touch, upper-limb prosthetic users must look at their prosthetic hands the whole time they use them. Unfortunately, the prosthetics research community has put most of its efforts into making arms with wider ranges of motion and m