MS-LS1-2
Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
- Health & Medicine
Ultrasound might become a new way to manage diabetes
Ultrasound turns on production of the hormone insulin in mice. Someday, it might help maintain healthy blood-sugar levels in people who were recently diagnosed with diabetes.
- Life
Explainer: Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
Prokaryotes tend to be small and simple, while eukaryotes have embraced a highly organized lifestyle. These divergent approaches to life have both proved very successful.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists discover how norovirus hijacks the gut
Noroviruses make people vomit, but scientists didn’t actually know why. It now turns out that those viruses cause their misery by attacking special “tuft” cells in the gut.
- Health & Medicine
Inked mice hint at how tattoos live on
Tattooed mice challenge our current understanding of how tattoos stay in humans.
- Animals
Cool Jobs: Diving for new medicines
Scientists mix research with underwater adventure as they search the oceans for new chemicals to treat infections, cancer and more.
- Health & Medicine
Obesity makes taste buds disappear — in mice, anyway
Mice that gained excessive weight on a high-fat diet also lost one in four taste buds.
- Animals
Explainer: DNA hunters
Snippets of DNA can be left behind by a passing organism. Some researchers now act as wildlife detectives to identify the sources of such cast-off DNA.
- Genetics
Explainer: Why scientists sometimes ‘knock out’ genes
How do we learn what a particular molecule does in the body? To find out, scientists often 'knock out' the gene that makes it. Here’s how.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a hormone?
Various tissues secrete special chemicals, known as hormones. They travel, usually in blood, to a particular distant site where they tell certain cells it’s time to go to work.
- Life
Scientists Say: Mitochondrion
Mitochondria are structures inside cells that converts certain chemicals into adenosine triphosphate — a molecule cells use as energy.
- Life
Scientists Say: ATP
This chemical is a bit like a rechargeable battery. Cells build and break apart its chemical bonds to store and release energy.
- Genetics
How to view tiny parts of DNA? Make them ‘blink’
A new technique can image nanoscale structures in cells without hurting them. No dyes needed. All you have to do is stimulate them with the right color of light.
