Archive: Jul 2016

In deciphering the mysteries of human health, mice have been one of our greatest allies. They have demonstrated the antibacterial properties of penicillin and served as a model for exploring obesity. Now they are helping researchers understand the…

by JohnMark Taylor figures by Youngeun Kaitlyn Choi What about the human brain allows a person to perform such feats as learning guitar through imitation, empathizing with anothers’s pain, or intuiting where a fencer will strike next? Nearly twenty-five…

by Eryn Blass figures by Michael Gerhardt Microbes are everywhere – in our environment, on our skin, and even within our bodies. Microbes, short for microorganisms, are living things so tiny that they can only be seen with a microscope. Microbes…

Image of a T cell, a critical part of the human immune system, taken with a high-resolution electron microscope. [‘Healthy Human T Cell’ from NIAID]Bringing a new medical therapy to market is rarely a straightforward task, as a biotech…

The first clinical trial using the gene editing technique CRISPR was given the go-ahead by panel from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The trial is aimed at determining if the technique is safe for use on human subjects. As there is much we…

Image contributed by Yu Wang, a third year graduate student at Harvard Medical School. Glial cells support the proper function of neuronal cell types and are also responsible for cleaning up cell debris such as leftover neurotransmitter molecules (what…

How a 300-million-year-old mystery fossil is reshaping our understanding of what it means to be a vertebrate. by Kelsey Lucas figures by Brad Wierbowski Through murky water you spot it – a creature with a cylindrical body, tapering at each end like a…

Digitally-colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Zika virus. Virus particles are colored blue. By CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith Public Domain In a little over a year since it was first reported in Brazil, Zika virus has gone from a little-known…

by Scott Melville figures by Shannon McArdel and Michael Gerhardt You’ll never guess how Google autocompletes: “Do black holes have…” The answer: “…no hair?” This strange question has been debated by physicists for at least forty years, and today it…

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/272233392″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%”…