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molecular biology

Latest Articles

A drawing of a piece of folded paper going back and forth between paper airplane and paper bird shapes.
Abstractions blog

Some Proteins Change Their Folds to Perform Different Jobs

By Viviane Callier
February 3, 2021
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Unusual proteins that can quickly fold into different shapes provide cells with a novel regulatory mechanism.

Video artwork showing yellow blobs move, merge, split, shrink and enlarge inside a clear cube.
molecular biology

A Newfound Source of Cellular Order in the Chemistry of Life

By Viviane Callier
January 7, 2021
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Inside cells, droplets of biomolecules called condensates merge, divide and dissolve. Their dance may regulate vital processes.

Illustration of a blue tiger.
Abstractions blog

How Neutral Theory Altered Ideas About Biodiversity

By Christie Wilcox
December 8, 2020
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The simple insight that most changes are random had a profound effect on genetics, evolution and ecology.

Colorized micrograph of a cell’s nucleus, showing euchromatin and heterochromatin.
Abstractions blog

Scientists Find Vital Genes Evolving in Genome’s Junkyard

By Viviane Callier
November 16, 2020
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Even genes essential for life can be caught in an evolutionary arms race that forces them to change or be replaced.

Cells being injected with a microneedle.
Abstractions blog

Nobel Chemistry Prize Awarded for CRISPR ‘Genetic Scissors’

By Jordana Cepelewicz
October 7, 2020
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Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of CRISPR/Cas9 genetic editing.

Animated illustration of flashing, moving wavelengths and strobing lights surrounding a pair of eyes.
Quantized Columns

Spreading the Word on a Possible Alzheimer’s Treatment

By R. Douglas Fields
May 27, 2020
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Neuroscientists could use brain waves to spur immune cells into action against the disease — but the process is almost too fantastic to believe.

genomics

Where Do New Genes Come From?

By Viviane Callier
April 9, 2020
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In their search for sources of genetic novelty, researchers find that some “orphan genes” with no obvious ancestors evolve out of junk DNA, contrary to old assumptions.

Illustration of two strips of movie film coiled around each other in a double helix.
behavior

Inherited Learning? It Happens, but How Is Uncertain

By Viviane Callier
October 16, 2019
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Studies suggest that epigenetics allows some learned adaptive responses to be passed down to new generations. The question is how.

VIDEO OPENER: TIME-LAPSE OF FLOWER OPENING.
botany

Unexpected ‘Germline’ Plant Cells May Shield New Generations

By Charlie Wood
August 5, 2019
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To avoid passing on new mutations to offspring, plants may minimize the number of divisions by the stem cells that make flowers and seeds.


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