Magazine Issue - March 2014 | The Origin of Life

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March 2014

Cover Story

Jef Akst | Mar 1, 2014

Most scientists believe that ribonucleic acid played a key role in the origin of life on Earth, but the versatile molecule isn’t the whole story.

Features

Viruses Reconsidered

Didier Raoult | Mar 1, 2014

The discovery of more and more viruses of record-breaking size calls for a reclassification of life on Earth.

A Twist of Fate

Jonathan Slack | Mar 1, 2014

Once believed to be irrevocably differentiated, mature cells are now proving to be flexible, able to switch identities with relatively simple manipulation.

Contributors

Meet some of the people featured in the March 2014 issue of The Scientist.

Editorial

Let There Be Life

How did Earth become biological?

Speaking of Science

March 2014's selection of notable quotes

Notebook

Keys to the Minibar

Degraded DNA from museum specimens, scat, and other sources has thwarted barcoding efforts, but researchers are filling in the gaps with mini-versions of characteristic genomic stretches.

Jaws, Reconsidered

Biologist Jelle Atema is putting the sensory capabilities of sharks to the test—and finding that the truth is more fascinating than fiction.

Air Traffic

Scientists use DNA sequencing to identify what’s attracting birds to airports, where midair collisions with planes can be devastating.

Northern Exposure

Researchers are using snowdrifts to artificially warm Arctic tundra during winter and finding that more carbon is released from the soil than plants can soak up from the atmosphere.

Thought Experiment

Ancient Life in the Information Age

What can bioinformatics and systems biology tell us about the ancestor of all living things?

Critic at Large

Campus Considerations

Career options and research opportunities at two-year colleges are often underappreciated.

Modus Operandi

Tension Tracker

For the first time, researchers quantify the mechanical forces cells exert on one another.

The Literature

Path Finding

Biochemistry reveals the missing link in a pathway that archaea and some bacteria use to generate essential compounds.

Exosome Tentacles

Unlike the usual smooth, spherical shape of exosomes, glioblastoma-derived exosomes appear to have long nanofilaments protruding from their surfaces.

Early Evidence

Fossilized structures suggest that mat-forming microbes have been around for almost 3.5 billion years.

Profile

Summoned From the Depths

Geobiologist Roger Summons analyzes organic material in rocks found deep inside Earth, looking for evidence of how life originated and evolved on our planet—and possibly on Mars.