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Highlighting the latest research and giving a voice to scientists
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Latest articles

    1. Neuroscience

    Locomotion: Unraveling the roles of cerebrospinal fluid-contacting neurons

    Claire Wyart
    Sensory neurons previously shown to optimize speed and balance in fish by providing information about the curvature of the spine show similar morphology and connectivity in mice.
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    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    2. Plant Biology

    Flowering: Keeping it cool

    Vy Nguyen, Iain Searle
    A well-established model for how plants start the process of flowering in periods of cold weather may need revisiting.
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    1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Viral Replication: Learning more about hepatitis E virus

    Altaira D Dearborn, Ashish Kumar, Joseph Marcotrigiano
    A domain in the ORF1 polyprotein of the hepatitis E virus that was previously thought to be a protease is actually a zinc-binding domain.
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    1. Physics of Living Systems

    Animal Locomotion: The benefits of swimming together

    Iain D Couzin, Liang Li
    When a fish beats its tail, it produces vortices in the water that other fish could take advantage of to save energy while swimming.
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  1. A large Aedes aegypti mosquito on a green and yellow background; on its left is a group of five smaller mosquitoes and on its right is a bright yellow light bulb

    Community Engagement: Listen to the shopkeeper

    Rafael Maciel-de-Freitas
    His mosquito control project heading for failure, a field entomologist recalls how a chance encounter led to a Eureka moment.
    1. Genetics and Genomics

    Genetics: The next step in Mendelian randomization

    Matthias Weith, Andreas Beyer
    Expanding a statistical approach called Mendelian randomization to include multiple variables may help researchers to identify new molecular causes of specific traits.
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    1. Ecology
    2. Epidemiology and Global Health

    Antibiotic Resistance: A mobile target

    Carolina Oliveira de Santana, Pieter Spealman, Gabriel G Perron
    The global spread of antibiotic resistance could be due to a number of factors, and not just the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture and medicine as previously thought.
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  2. A line-drawn gloved hand holding a scarlet spark against a white background

    Science and Politics: Mexican researchers fear for the future

    After four years of funding cuts and the erosion of academic freedom in Mexico, one scientist shares his community’s concerns about a new law that would give the central government more control over scientific research.
    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Metamorphosis: The making of a maggot brain

    Andreas S Thum, Bertram Gerber
    The way neurons in the brain rewire in larvae as they turn to adult fruit flies sheds light on how complete metamorphosis was ‘invented’ over the course of evolution.
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  3. Episode 85: February 2023

    In this episode, we hear about a possible link between mitochondrial DNA and personality, why humans are mostly right-handed, circadian clocks and sunflowers, hairless mammals, and how some herbivores deal with plant toxins.