Meenakshi Prabhune

San Francisco

Editor in chief at The Scientist. I am a #sciencejournalist, #scicomm-er, #traveler, #blogger, book lover, and movie fanatic.

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Articles

The Journey to a Nobel Prize: A Protein Design and Structure Research Timeline

Oct 17, 2024 | xpresschronicle.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

In the wee hours of an October morning, David Baker, a protein biologist at the University of Washington (UW), received the most-awaited phone call in a scientist’s career. Halfway around the world, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of Google DeepMind, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, got the same news.
The Journey to a Nobel Prize: A Protein Design and Structure Research Timeline

Oct 17, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

In the wee hours of an October morning, David Baker, a protein biologist at the University of Washington (UW), received the most-awaited phone call in a scientist’s career. Halfway around the world, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of Google DeepMind, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, got the same news.
An Ode to Stem Cells

Sep 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

Until a few hundred years ago, before scientific advances allowed researchers to peer inside the human body or extract cells to study them in the laboratory, I imagine that the mysteries of developmental biology—more than any other discipline—must have stumped humans. On one hand, one could visibly track a baby’s growth based on the size of the mother's growing bump; if everything went right, a healthy baby would emerge after nine months.
TS Digest Issue | July 2024, Issue 2 | What's the Difference Between Flow Cytometry and FACS?

Jul 15, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune |Laura Tran |Shelby Bradford |Hannah Thomasy

From the Editor| ArticleThe Immeasurable Impact of a ScientistA sprawling tree earns credit for producing fruits, cleansing the air, and offering a habitat for birds and small animals. But include the forest that it populated via seed dispersal, and its real influence extends beyond measure. Scientists face a similar situation. The h-index value measures a scientist’s success based on the number of publications and citations, but that score ignores a researcher’s percolating influence.
The Immeasurable Impact of a Scientist

Jul 14, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

A sprawling tree earns credit for producing fruits, cleansing the air, and offering a habitat for birds and small animals. But include the forest that it populated via seed dispersal, and its real influence extends beyond measure. Scientists face a similar situation. The h-index value measures a scientist’s success based on the number of publications and citations, but that score ignores a researcher’s percolating influence.
TS Digest Issue | July 2024, Issue 1 | Mitochondria: The Powerhouse of the Placenta

Jul 1, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune |Shelby Bradford |Danielle M. Gerhard |Laura Tran

From the Editor| ArticleTS Digest Turns OneTime flies! It seems like yesterday that I wrote my for the launch of the TS digest last year, describing it as the literary equivalent of a fine dining tasting menu. Our goal behind curating this interactive, bite-sized digital magazine was to provide you, our readers, with refreshing content—short articles, brief podcast episodes, videos, infographics—for when you need a quick science break from your busy day.
TS Digest Turns One

Jun 30, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

Time flies! It seems like yesterday that I wrote my for the launch of the TS digest last year, describing it as the literary equivalent of a fine dining tasting menu. Our goal behind curating this interactive, bite-sized digital magazine was to provide you, our readers, with refreshing content—short articles, brief podcast episodes, videos, infographics—for when you need a quick science break from your busy day.
Synthetic Biology is in Fashion

Jun 13, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

Once upon a time, circa 2700 BC in China, empress Xi Ling Shi was enjoying her afternoon tea under a mulberry tree, when a silkworm cocoon fell from the tree into her tea. She noticed that on contact with the hot beverage, the cocoon unraveled into a long silky thread. This happy accident inspired her to acquire these threads in abundance and fashion them into an elegant fabric.
Infographic: Synthetic Biology is Transforming Clothes and Cosmetics

Jun 13, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

Recombinant proteins usher in an era of sustainable fashion. Humans have used natural resources for garment production for thousands of years. While synthetic fabrics have dominated the textile industry in the last century, synthetic biologists are determined to harness natural proteins to sustainably produce better materials. Consequent advances in the production of relevant recombinant proteins at scale is changing the face of textile and personal care sectors.
Back to the Basics to Break Boundaries

Jun 13, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Meenakshi Prabhune

I distinctly remember the day I first learned about using plasmids to manipulate bacteria during my undergraduate studies in microbiology. The experiment was quite simple, but at the time, I was mesmerized by the ingenuity of using plasmids to confer antibiotic resistance to bacteria. One could then screen for the plasmid-bearing surviving microbes that formed colonies on an antibiotic-infused agar plate. Science can be fun, and at times funny.