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Hox genes make sure all your body parts grow in the right place. Understanding how they work can reveal the process of evolution and lead to potential treatments for congenital birth defects.
Intensive care physicians are yet again facing ICU bed and staff shortages as severe COVID-19 cases rise.
gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images Plus
A critical care doctor brings a frontlines perspective to the frustration of dealing firsthand with vaccine hesitancy and discusses the limitations of science and medicine.
The brains of mice randomly produce large bursts of dopamine that could produce feelings of hope.
Julia Kuhl
Mouse brains produce random, strong bursts of dopamine and are able to control them. This may challenge many long-held ideas about learning and motivation.
Giant sea bass are listed as a critically endangered species.
Maru Brito
The giant sea bass fishery collapsed long ago in the US, but that didn’t mean the species was endangered. New research shows these iconic fish have been thriving south of the border.
Seabirds journey vast distances across the Earth’s seascapes to find food and to breed. This means their biology, particularly their breeding success, can reveal what’s happening in our oceans.
U.S. President Joe Biden, with presidential climate envoy John Kerry, opened the Leaders Summit on Climate on April 22, 2021, by announcing new U.S. targets.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Two energy and climate policy experts take a closer look at the Leaders Summit on Climate, the US pledge and today’s industrial reality.
The American Dream and Promise Act, also known as House Resolution 6, would create a path to citizenship for immigrant ‘Dreamers’ – but it has to pass the Senate first.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
The House passed a bill creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. Here’s what you need to know about the Dreamers and DACA.
Migrants pray at a March 2 demonstration at San Ysidro crossing port in Tijuana, Mexico, to demand clearer U.S. migration policies.
Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images
Research suggests that reminding Americans – Democrats and Republicans – of their family history creates empathy for immigrants and more favorable views toward immigration.
Sewage samples mixed with magnetic beads and loaded onto the liquid-handling robot for viral concentration.
C. H. Sheikhzadeh @ HOMA Photographic Art
Researchers don’t fully understand the composition of breast milk and its benefits. Beyond nutrition, it contains enzymes, hormones and the mother’s antibodies — including antibodies for COVID-19.
The number one scientific breakthrough for 2020: multiple vaccines to prevent COVID-19.
Philippe Raimbault/Photodisc via Getty Images
The development of multiple vaccines against the virus that causes COVID-19 has been hailed as the breakthrough of 2020. But there were many more supporting discoveries that made this possible.
What happens to millions of these?
Kristoferb/Wikipedia
Zheng Chen, University of California, San Diego and Darren H. S. Tan, University of California, San Diego
Batteries power much of modern life, from electric and hybrid cars to computers, medical devices and cellphones. But unless they’re made easier and cheaper to recycle, a battery waste crisis looms.
Bernard Tobey, a double amputee, and his son, wearing Union sailor uniforms, standing beside a small wagon displaying Secretary of War Edwin Stanton’s dispatch on the fall of Fort Fisher.
Fetter's New Photograph Gallery/Library of Congress
Lessons from history make clear that the federal government can spur medical innovation in a crisis, including this pandemic. Providing certainty and clarity is critical.
There are currently no permanent treatments for most patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
PokPak05/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Lowering urban density to protect against the coronavirus would be a misguided response. Density is not a key driver of infection, and keeps people active and healthy.
Duck decoys lure real ducks within range of hunters. Nanoparticles that look like cells serve as both decoys and hunters to ensnare virus particles.
Chuck Holland/Flickr
Nanoparticles dressed up in cell membranes snag SARS-CoV-2 virus particles before they reach human cells.
This Bioculture System will let biologists learn about how space impacts human health by studying cells grown in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station.
NASA/Ames Research Center/Dominic Hart
Why are scientists trying to grow organs at the International Space Station? People live on Earth not in zero-gravity. A stem cell expert explains why it is useful to do these experiments in space.
California was one of the first states to enact shelter-in-place orders.
Aydin Palabiyikoglu/Getty Images
Four researchers studied California’s shelter-in-place orders to figure out how many lives were saved by its early enactment. Here’s what they found.
A molecular model of the spike proteins (red) of SARS-CoV-2 binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein, the receptor (blue) which is its the entry route to the target cell.
Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library
Krishna Sriram, University of California, San Diego; Paul Insel, University of California, San Diego, and Rohit Loomba, University of California, San Diego
The ACE2 receptor allows the virus that causes COVID-19 to infect and destroy our cells. What is the normal role of ACE2 in the body, and could it be the key to blocking infection?