Worker ants, despite their diligence, seldom encounter opportunities for social mobility. In many species, individuals adhere to strict caste roles: queens lay eggs and workers take care of almost everything else, including ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 26, 2018
2
145
For lovers throughout the animal kingdom, finding a suitable mate requires the right chemistry. Now, scientists at The Rockefeller University have been able to map an unexpected path in which evolution arranged for animals ...
Evolution
Jul 11, 2018
0
184
At some point in life, most of us will contract Tropheryma whipplei without even knowing it. For one in a million infected people, however, this bacterium will make itself blatantly known by causing Whipple's disease, an ...
Biotechnology
May 28, 2018
0
10
The factors that shape the destiny of a cell, like that of a fully formed person, remain something of a mystery. Why, for example, does one stem cell in a human embryo become a neuron rather than a muscle cell? And why does ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 23, 2018
0
229
Researchers report important new insights into evolution following a study of mitochondrial DNA from about 5 million specimens covering about 100,000 animal species.
Evolution
May 21, 2018
8
87
For a stem cell, the future is wide open. It can divide infinitely to create more stem cells, or it can grow up into other kinds of cells, taking its place in the heart, brain, or other organs. But the stem cell loses something ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 30, 2018
0
129
Mom always said you could get germs from playing in the dirt. Now, scientists have taken that advice a step further: a Rockefeller University team collected more than 2,000 soil samples from nearby New York City parks, and ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 23, 2018
0
12
Death is certain for all living things, including the body's cells. The act of dying is in fact as sophisticated as any process a cell might perform during its lifetime—and when glitches in cell death occur, they can lead ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 19, 2018
0
31
Like an island nation, the nucleus of a cell has a transportation problem. Evolution has enclosed it with a double membrane, the nuclear envelope, which protects DNA but also cuts it off from the rest of the cell. Nature's ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 15, 2018
0
126
All of the proteins necessary for life are made by giant molecular machines called ribosomes. A ribosome, in turn, is built from proteins and ribosomal RNAs stitched together with immaculate precision.
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 12, 2018
0
28
