From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- Brain
These scientists are getting inside your head
You brain might only weigh few pounds, but there’s a whole world in there. Meet the women in science who are digging into the mysteries of the mind.
- Agriculture
Bananas under attack: Understanding their foes
Fungal blights threaten the world’s most popular fruit. But genetic studies hint at new ways to combat some of these diseases.
- Life
Scientists Say: Autophagy
Cells can break down and recycle their parts for later use. This process — called autophagy — won a scientist a Nobel Prize in 2016.
- Brain
Cool Jobs: Video game creators
Meet an engineer who worked on StarCraft II, an expert building a new kind of reality and a neuroscientist who uses games as brain therapy.
- Life
Nobel awarded for unveiling how cells recycle their trash
Cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi has won the 2016 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for discovering how cells take care of housekeeping.
- Health & Medicine
Why trans fats became a food villain
Trans fats are now known as a dietary villain. But in the beginning, scientists thought they were better than butter.
- Health & Medicine
Measles in the Americas: Going, going — gone!
The Americas have at last shed a major childhood scourge: measles. The viral infection used to kill hundreds of children each year. Now the hemisphere only sees cases spread by travelers.
- Health & Medicine
Zebra finches can ‘drink’ water from their own fat
When water is scarce, thirsty zebra finches can produce their own water. They do it by breaking down their body fat.
- Plants
Houseplants suck up air pollutants that can sicken people
Certain indoor air pollutants can sicken people. But some houseplants can remove those chemicals from a room’s air, new data show.
- Plants
Scientists Say: Chlorophyll
Plants can make energy out of sunlight, all thanks to a pigment called chlorophyll.
- Brain
Good dog! Canine brains separate tone of speech from its meaning
Dogs brains divide up the tasks of interpreting words and interpreting emotion. It’s a skill that may have evolved even before people did.
- Tech
One day, computers may decode your dreams
Scientists are learning how to translate brain activity into words and thoughts. This may one day allow people to control devices with their minds.
