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Jan 18, 2025 | 
the-scientist.com | Connor Lynch |Deanna Elise MacNeil
There are few surer heralds of spring than petrichor. It’s the earthy aroma that wafts up after a good rain and comes primarily from chemical compounds called terpenes. Geosmin, for example, is a terpene most commonly associated with Streptomyces bacteria, although other bacteria and fungi also make it, and it’s found in soils and bodies of fresh water the world over. Its ubiquity has long fascinated scientists—not least because it hasn’t been clear why its various producers make it.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Chris Baraniuk |Deanna Elise MacNeil
For the cheetah, getting her vaccine was no big deal. When the wildlife care specialist at San Diego Zoo Safari Park called to her, she paced over and then sat, quiet and calm, to receive her injection. “The animal participates in this process and can walk away at any time,” explained Nadine Lamberski, head of wildlife health at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Niki Spahich |Deanna Elise MacNeil
Salmonella living within macrophages can survive antibiotic treatment and potentially give rise to resistance by two different mechanisms that slow or arrest their growth. iStockBacteria that are resistant to antibiotics thrive in the face of drug treatment, which can lead to life threatening, often incurable infections. Other bacteria can exist in a pre-resistant state.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Asher Jones |Deanna Elise MacNeil
As the average length of women’s menstrual cycles matches the moon’s 29.5-day waxing and waning cycle, many cultures associated the moon with fertility. The celestial body’s influence on humans biologyhas largely been dismissed as myth, but several studies have linked lunar phases with sleep and moods.
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Aug 9, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Deanna Elise MacNeil
Many mysteries surround if and how both parents’ lifestyles before conception can influence their children’s health.
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Jul 26, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Deanna Elise MacNeil
Article reviewed by Tristan Long, PhD from Wilfrid Laurier University. Stay up to date on the latest science with Brush Up Summaries. What Is a Model Organism?
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Jun 18, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Deanna Elise MacNeil
Caenorhabditis elegans is a tiny nematode species that makes big contributions to molecular research. These worms have simple genomes, well-delineated developmental processes, brief lifespans, and many conserved biological pathways across the animal kingdom, including human processes such as aging, reproduction, and neurodevelopment. Because they are easy and affordable to grow in a dish, they are exceptional model organisms for in vivo compound screens, but traditional C.
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Jun 2, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Deanna Elise MacNeil
As a maternal-fetal immunologist at the Washington University School of Medicine, Nardhy Gómez-López investigates the immunobiological pathways that underlie pregnancy complications. Having trained and researched across the globe alongside caring and curious physicians, Gómez-López became hooked on perinatal immunology research. Motivated to help solve the prevalent problem of preterm birth, she currently looks at labor and birth, also called parturition, through a basic research lens.
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May 3, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Deanna Elise MacNeil
When scientists first began applying CRISPR for genome editing in human cells, it opened the floodgates for studying disease genetics. In those early days of editing with CRISPR-Cas9, precision oncology researcher Francisco Sánchez-Rivera was a graduate student investigating cancer genetics in Tyler Jacks’ laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Deanna Elise MacNeil
Astrocytes quickly respond to trouble in the brain. Under normal physiological conditions, these abundant reactive glial cells rapidly adapt to environmental changes, which allows them to regulate healthy brain function.1 However, in disease contexts, astrocytes switch to harmful states that increase nerve cell loss and damage the central nervous system.
