For The Better

The cnidocytes — or stinging cells — that are characteristic of sea anemones, hydrae, corals and jellyfish, and make us careful of our feet while wading in the ocean, are also an excellent model for understanding the emergence of new cell types, acco…

A new study finds that tree growth does not seem to be generally limited by photosynthesis but rather by cell growth. This suggests that we need to rethink the way we forecast forest growth in a changing climate, and that forests in the future may not …

A quantum system with only 51 charged atoms can take on more than two quadrillion different states. Calculating the system’s behavior is child’s play for a quantum simulator. But verifying the result is almost impossible, even with today’s supercompute…

Imagine sitting at a meeting where the shape of the table and your place at it might impact how you get along with the other members. Cells also communicate with their nearest neighbors, and in embryos, nothing is left to chance in the ‘seating plan’ f…

Researchers have equipped gut bacteria with data logger functionality as a way of monitoring which genes are active in the bacteria. These microorganisms could one day offer a noninvasive means of diagnosing disease or assessing the impact of a diet on…

Genetic studies have revealed many genes linked to both common and rare disease, but to understand how those genes bring about disease and use those insights to help develop therapies, scientists need to know where they are active in the body. Now rese…

Researchers have published a review of care for women with pre-eclampsia.