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Image of Lasker laureate Zhijian “James” Chen. He wears glasses and a light blue shirt under a dark blue sweater. He smiles at the camera.
DNA-Sensing Enzyme Wins the 2024 Lasker Award
Zhijian “James” Chen received this year’s Albert Lasker Award for discovering cGAS, an enzyme which scopes out DNA-based threats and alerts the immune system.
DNA-Sensing Enzyme Wins the 2024 Lasker Award
DNA-Sensing Enzyme Wins the 2024 Lasker Award

Zhijian “James” Chen received this year’s Albert Lasker Award for discovering cGAS, an enzyme which scopes out DNA-based threats and alerts the immune system.

Zhijian “James” Chen received this year’s Albert Lasker Award for discovering cGAS, an enzyme which scopes out DNA-based threats and alerts the immune system.

awards

Image of blue and red worms navigating across a maze from left to right. The far right depicts a finish line for the worms.
Drunk Worms Wiggle Their Way to an Ig Nobel Win
Laura Tran, PhD | Sep 12, 2024 | 4 min read
University of Amsterdam researchers claimed the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studying polymers by racing inebriated and sober worms through a chromatography maze.
2023 Ig Nobel Prize for Gripping Work on Dead Spiders
Meenakshi Prabhune, PhD | Sep 15, 2023 | 3 min read
Rice University researchers claimed the Ig Nobel Prize for upleveling biorobotics by transforming deceased spiders into robotic grippers.
Paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill sitting next to museum collection bones
New NAS Awards Honor Science Communication in “Post-Truth World”
Christie Wilcox, PhD | Oct 27, 2022 | 7 min read
The Scientist speaks with paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill, who won one of the 24 awards recognizing efforts to communicate scientific issues to the general public.
An intact scorpion claw-in-claw with an autotomized one
Constipation’s Effect on Scorpion Sex Garners Biology Ig Nobel
Christie Wilcox, PhD | Sep 16, 2022 | 3 min read
Other winners of this year’s prizes include research on the physics of ducklings and the therapeutic potential of ice cream.
An outstretched hand holds a collection of prize medals in the sunlight
Analysis: Asian Researchers Scarce Among Biomedical Award Winners
Dan Robitzski | Feb 4, 2022 | 5 min read
Multiple prestigious US biomedical research awards have rarely or never been granted to a scientist with Asian ancestry, illustrating racial bias within American research societies and institutions, a researcher argues.
sketch of two men smiling
Mechanisms of Chili’s Heat, Menthol’s Cool Garner Nobel
Chloe Tenn | Oct 4, 2021 | 4 min read
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on the ion channels involved in perceiving heat, cold, pain, and touch.
cartoon image showing colorful collection of syringes, coronavirus particles, and mrna to represent the vaccine development
Optogenetics and mRNA Vaccines Net Lasker Awards
Annie Melchor | Sep 24, 2021 | 2 min read
This year’s winners are Dieter Oesterhelt, Peter Hegemann, Karl Deisseroth, Drew Weissman, Katalin Karikó, and David Baltimore.
Beaker with glowing moneybag
New HHMI Investigator Cohort Announced
Chloe Tenn | Sep 23, 2021 | 3 min read
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute appoints 33 new researchers, each of whom will receive roughly $9 million over seven years.
Rhino upside down, in the sky
2021 Ig Nobel Prizes Honor Decongestant Orgasms, Rhino Transport
Lisa Winter | Sep 14, 2021 | 2 min read
A full beard can absorb nearly 40 percent of the shock from a punch to the face, according to one winning study.
Women Who Win Science Prizes Earn Less Money, Prestige than Men
Ashley Yeager | Jan 18, 2019 | 2 min read
Biomedical awards from the past 50 years reveal a gender imbalance, but it appears to be improving.
the Lasker award trophy
Lasker Awards Recognize Work on Histones, Anesthesia, RNA
Shawna Williams | Sep 11, 2018 | 2 min read
This year’s winners are C. David Allis, Michael Grunstein, John Glen, and Joan Steitz.
blue alarm clock on table
AAAS Insiders Petition to Revoke Honors of Sexual Harassers
Shawna Williams | Aug 24, 2018 | 2 min read
The organization says it’s working on a policy.
Brain Prize Laureate Will Donate Some Winnings to Anti-Brexit Group
Shawna Williams | Mar 6, 2018 | 1 min read
Alzheimer’s researcher John Hardy calls the departure “an unmitigated disaster” for science and healthcare in Britain.
Breakthrough Prizes Recognize Geneticists, Big Bang Researchers
Catherine Offord | Dec 3, 2017 | 2 min read
Among this year’s winners are a geneticist who revealed how plants respond to shade and a group of physicists who mapped the universe’s background radiation.
Prizes Bigger than the Nobel
Shawna Williams | Oct 5, 2017 | 3 min read
The Nobel Prize may garner the most attention, but there are other biomedical awards at least as lucrative.
Breakthrough Prizes for Life Scientists
Tracy Vence | Dec 4, 2016 | 2 min read
Awards of $3 million each go to five researchers in the life sciences, recognizing their pioneering work on autophagy, DNA-damage response, Wnt signaling, and more.
When Nobel Laureates Earn Their Awards
Jef Akst | Oct 3, 2016 | 2 min read
Winners in the Physiology or Medicine category are trending older, even though they’re completing their award-winning research when they are about the same age, according to an analysis.
Ig Nobels Honor Surprising Science
Ben Andrew Henry | Sep 26, 2016 | 1 min read
Studies on the sex lives of rats and the personality of rocks are among the projects celebrated this year.
Most Active Peer Reviewers Honored
Ben Andrew Henry | Sep 26, 2016 | 1 min read
The “Sentinels of Science” award recognizes especially productive peer reviewers.
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