The atomic-force microscope (AFM) was developed 20 years ago, but only recently has it become a significant tool for biologists.

If you thought transposons were mere genetic curiosities, think again.

Richard Houlston works at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, UK, where he searches for genes that confer susceptibility to disease.

Short of sticking electrodes directly into an organism's brain, scientists looking to image neural signaling in living systems have few options.

Irene Pepperberg, a Harvard University research associate who studies cognition and communication in African grey parrots, has moved her lab four times since 1984.

So, you've been working with small animals and you want to move up to larger experimental models.

NASA scientists, in conjunction with Guava Technologies of Hayward, Calif., recently announced a compact prototype flow cytometer that functions in zero-gravity, for use aboard the International Space Station.

Although she died when the Roman Empire ruled her native land, a five-year-old Egyptian child named Sherit is nevertheless pushing the envelope in high-tech medicine.

Gadget freaks love to "mod" their toys, and protein engineers are no exception.

When the next outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) will emerge is anyone's guess.

Microarrays present researchers with something of a catch-22: In order to find something, you have to know what you're looking for.

Researcher Willy Walter of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has fairly typical gel-documentation needs: "We take pictures of ethidium bromide-stained agarose gels using a UV transilluminator and of yeast colonies under white light."

The discovery of even a single case of mad cow disease can be economically devastating.

During most of the 1990s, a linguistic chasm divided the worlds of flies, worms, mice, and other model organisms.

Researchers at Chiron made virology history in 1987 when they discovered the hepatitis C virus (HCV), not by isolating viral particles, but by cloning and sequencing its genome.

Cloning DNA fragments using restriction enzymes is like flying from Seattle to New York via Phoenix.

Stereomicroscopes are not sexy

It's not often that an industry volunteers for tighter regulation and oversight.

Lab freezers are like mom's attic: cluttered with the property of people long gone.

It is a lament heard in labs everywhere, usually on Friday nights: "I can't go out, I've got to run a gel."