An image of a pair of wild type (left) and mir-193 mutant (right) African squinting bush brown butterflies.
| 4 min read
The vivid wing patterns of butterflies, once attributed to a gene, are now traced to an overlooked microRNA.

coloration

A colorful mandarinfish on a reef

Genome Spotlight: Mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus)

a purple betta with white fins in a tank

My Daughter’s First Pet—the Next Big Model Organism?

Editor’s Picks of The Scientist’s Best Infographics of 2020

Infographic: Dialing Down the Glitz

The Gene that Makes Female Birds Drab

Herennia multipuncta spider coloration evolution predator prey

Spider’s Orange Colors Both Lure Prey and Frighten Predators

Image of the Day: Squid Skin

Hawaiian Spiders on Different Islands Evolved Same Disguise in Parallel

Image of the Day: Living Color

Image of the Day: Rainbow Butt

Behavior Brief

Butterfly Eyespots Deflect Predation

Trending

Photo of John Calhoun crouches within his rodent utopia-turned-dystopia

Universe 25 Experiment

An obese mouse on the left compared with normal control on right.

How Cysteine Depletion Drives Cells to Burn Fat 

Green clusters of moss on a petri dish against a white background.

Moss Medicines: The Next Revolution in Biotech?

Split image of a man unsuccessfully trying to tickle himself with a feather (right) and a man laughing and being tickled by a woman with a feather (left).

Why Can’t We Tickle Ourselves?

Multimedia

Screening 3D Brain Cell Cultures for Drug Discovery

Screening 3D Brain Cell Cultures for Drug Discovery

A large number of stylized antibodies

The Holy Grail Hunt in De Novo Antibody Design

Twist Bio 
July Digest 2025
July 2025, Issue 1

What Causes an Earworm?

Memory-enhancing neural networks may also drive involuntary musical loops in the brain.

View this Issue
Screening 3D Brain Cell Cultures for Drug Discovery

Screening 3D Brain Cell Cultures for Drug Discovery

Explore synthetic DNA’s many applications in cancer research

Weaving the Fabric of Cancer Research with Synthetic DNA

Twist Bio 
Illustrated plasmids in bright fluorescent colors

Enhancing Elution of Plasmid DNA

cytiva logo
An illustration of green lentiviral particles.

Maximizing Lentivirus Recovery

cytiva logo

Products

The Scientist Placeholder Image

Sino Biological Sets New Industry Standard with ProPure Endotoxin-Free Proteins made in the USA

sartorius-logo

Introducing the iQue 5 HTS Platform: Empowering Scientists  with Unbeatable Speed and Flexibility for High Throughput Screening by Cytometry

parse_logo

Vanderbilt Selects Parse Biosciences GigaLab to Generate Atlas of Early Neutralizing Antibodies to Measles, Mumps, and Rubella

shiftbioscience

Shift Bioscience proposes improved ranking system for virtual cell models to accelerate gene target discovery