The Embryo's Secrets Revealed

Meet some of the people featured in the December 2017 issue of The Scientist.

Looking back, looking forward

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.

Aggressive little marine predators, mantis shrimps possess a mushroom body that appears identical to the one found in insects.

Magpie-larks trick rivals with solo “duets” to defend territory.

Brazilian researchers report a relatively large diversity of fungi in marine ecosystems surrounding Antarctica, but warn that climate change could bring unpleasant surprises.

The whip spider senses the world in weird and wonderful ways.

Combining gene editing and stem-cell induction improves efficiency of functional genetic analyses.

New technologies reveal the dynamic changes in mouse and human embryos during the first week after fertilization.

Exosomes produced by macrophages in fatty tissue influence insulin sensitivity in distant cell types, a study finds.

When peripheral nerves are severed, Schwann cells at the injury site begin to proliferate and exhibit stem cell-like gene expression patterns.

A single receptor on natural killer cells recognizes an amino acid sequence conserved across Zika, dengue, and related pathogens.

Peering through a microscope since age 14, Joseph Gall, now 89, still sees wonder at the other end.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researcher’s work will help predict how the Arctic is responding to climate change—and the global effects of those changes.

Researchers are using light and new image processing tools for label-free cell characterization.

Private funders are starting to support big projects, and they’re rewriting the playbook on fueling scientific research.

Jane Austen can teach us a lot about how our brains handle uncertainty.

Fifty years ago, Arthur Kornberg announced to reporters that his team had synthesized functional DNA.