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Jordana Cepelewicz

Senior Writer

Simple line drawing of a beating human heart.
Abstractions blog

How Your Heart Influences What You Perceive and Fear

By Jordana Cepelewicz
July 6, 2020
Read Later

The heartbeat and other bodily processes play a surprising role in shaping perception and cognition.

Stalks and spore bodies of a slime mold rise above a smooth surface.
Abstractions blog

Out-of-Sync ‘Loners’ May Secretly Protect Orderly Swarms

By Jordana Cepelewicz
May 21, 2020
Read Later

Studies of collective behavior usually focus on how crowds of organisms coordinate their actions. But what if the individuals that don’t participate have just as much to tell us?

Close-up of water swirling among rocks at the sea’s edge.
microbiology

Inside Deep Undersea Rocks, Life Thrives Without the Sun

By Jordana Cepelewicz
May 13, 2020
Read Later

Newly discovered worlds of microbes far beneath the ocean floor, inside old basaltic rocks, could point to a greater likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe.

Computer model of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
Abstractions blog

Sugary Camouflage on Coronavirus Offers Vaccine Clues

By Jordana Cepelewicz
May 5, 2020
Read Later

In the fight against viruses and other pathogens, scientists are looking beyond genes and proteins to the complex sugars, or glycans, on cell surfaces.

An illustration that represents the big differences in size and diversity in the microbiomes of six species.
microbiology

Some Animals Have No Microbiome. Here’s What That Tells Us.

By Jordana Cepelewicz
April 14, 2020
Read Later

To stay healthy, humans and some other animals rely on a complex community of bacteria in their guts. But research is starting to show that those partnerships might be more the exception than the rule.

A mother armadillo, lying on her side, nurses four baby armadillos.
developmental biology

Nature Versus Nurture? Add ‘Noise’ to the Debate.

By Jordana Cepelewicz
March 23, 2020
Read Later

We give our genes and our environment all the credit for making us who we are. But random noise during development might be just as important.

Two arrows that are intertwined for most of their length but then point in different directions.
Abstractions blog

In Brain Waves, Scientists See Neurons Juggle Possible Futures

By Jordana Cepelewicz
February 24, 2020
Read Later

Faced with a decision, the brain weighs its options by bundling them into rapidly alternating cycles of brain waves.

Illustration of an RNA sequence, with an arrow pointing from one end to the other, and a sequence of complementary nucleotides, with an arrow pointing the other way.
Abstractions blog

New Clues About ‘Ambigram’ Viruses With Strange Reversible Genes

By Jordana Cepelewicz
February 12, 2020
Read Later

For decades, scientists have been intrigued by tiny viruses whose genetic material can be read both forward and backward. New research begins to explain this puzzling property.

Micrograph of a section of brain organoid tissue.
neuroscience

An Ethical Future for Brain Organoids Takes Shape

By Jordana Cepelewicz
January 23, 2020
Read Later

Collaborations in progress between ethicists and biologists seek to head off challenges raised by lab-grown “organoids” as they become increasingly similar to human brain tissue.


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