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proteins

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smell

How a Human Smell Receptor Works Is Finally Revealed

By Wynne Parry
May 1, 2023
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After decades of frustration, researchers have determined how an airborne scent molecule links to a human smell receptor.

neuroscience

What Causes Alzheimer’s? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer.

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
December 8, 2022
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After decades in the shadow of the reigning model for Alzheimer’s disease, alternative explanations are finally getting the attention they deserve.

immunology

Bacteria’s Immune Sensors Reveal a Novel Way to Detect Viruses

By Annie Melchor
August 29, 2022
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A new study reveals that bacteria can fight viruses in a surprisingly elegant way that has no known counterpart in more complex life.

Micrograph of a neuron showing aggregations of tau protein.
aging

Protein Blobs Linked to Alzheimer’s Affect Aging in All Cells

By Viviane Callier
June 28, 2022
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Protein buildups like those seen around neurons in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain diseases occur in all aging cells, a new study suggests. Learning their significance may reveal new strategies for treating age-related diseases.

Illustration of icons that relate to life’s origins: a volcano, molecules, a crab, fish, DNA and more.
The Joy of Why

How Could Life Evolve From Cyanide?

By Steven Strogatz
June 1, 2022
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How did life arise on Earth? Steven Strogatz speaks with the Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jack Szostak and Betül Kaçar, a paleogeneticist and astrobiologist, to explore our best understanding of how we all got here.

Colorized transmission electron micrograph of a polyribosome.
origins of life

Life’s First Peptides May Have Grown on RNA Strands

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
May 24, 2022
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RNA and peptides coevolving in the primordial world might have jointly served as a precursor to the modern ribosome.

Artist’s illustration representing the immune system standing guard against a world of pathogens.
The Joy of Why

Why Is Inflammation a Dangerous Necessity?

By Steven Strogatz
April 20, 2022
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The immune system protects us from a full spectrum of pathogens, but without balance, it can end up hurting us over time, too. The immunologist Shruti Naik explains how our defenses can turn on us.

Illustration that combines elements of three- and four-leaf clovers with the letter for nucleotides in codons.
synthetic biology

Life With Longer Genetic Codes Seems Possible — but Less Likely

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
April 11, 2022
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Life could use a more expansive genetic code in theory, but new work shows that improving on three-letter codons would be a challenge.

An illustration of a polyglycine molecule among the constellations.
origins of life

Peptides on Stardust May Have Provided a Shortcut to Life

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
March 8, 2022
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The discovery that short peptides can form spontaneously on cosmic dust hints at more of a role for them in the earliest stages of life’s origin, on Earth or elsewhere.


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