chemical biology

The compounds responsible for the earthy smell of recent rain are produced by a wide variety of bacteria and fungi. Recent research sheds light on why microbes bother.

The first evidence of biologically produced elemental carbon inspires more questions than answers.  

6PPD, a tire preservative, reacts with ozone to produce a compound that the researchers say may be responsible for large die-off events.

Malnourished kids who eat the fruit containing a naturally occurring toxin suffer from low blood sugar and symptoms of encephalopathy.

Chemical cues help Drosophila mask their eggs from predators.

The Nobel laureate revolutionized our understanding of how brain cells communicate.

The brown tree snake has wreaked havoc on the island of Guam, but one solution to the problem could lie in the serpent’s own physiology.

The consumption of p-coumaric acid, a chemical found in honey and pollen, may help set a female honeybee on its course to becoming a worker instead of a queen.

A new experimental system demonstrates that precursors of ribonucleotides, amino acids, and lipids may have simultaneously arisen from the same prebiotic chemistry.

Synthetic biologists introduce bacterial and poppy plant genes into yeast to manufacture morphine.

Mice infected with a malaria-causing parasite emit odors that are more attractive to malaria-transmitting mosquitoes than uninfected animals, a study shows.

Two new techniques identify how often zinc fingers nucleases cleave off-target sites.