Not one to shy away from controversy, Bruce Ames has pitted himself against industry groups, environmentalists, and his peers through his work identifying DNA mutagens. And he’s not done yet.

Meet some of the people featured in the October 2012 issue of The Scientist.

Vitamin D has a variety of actions in the body. It binds to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), which then binds to the retinoid X receptor (RXR) and activates the expression of numerous genes. 

Studies on safety, efficacy, or dosing of drugs in children, or on nutritional supplements, are not run-of-the-mill.

Prevention trials for vitamins and supplements are notoriously difficult, but some researchers aren’t giving up on finding proof that vitamin D helps ward off disease.

For more than 40 years, German gynecologist and legendary science writer Fritz Kahn (1888-1968) captured the imagination of an international audience with hundreds of wildly inventive illustrations and more than a dozen popular science books. 

Around the turn of the 20th century—before sunscreens hit the market and the damaging effects of UV radiation were widely appreciated—physicians saw the sun mostly as a source of healing.