Using a revolutionary new microscope, scientists can now peer into embryos and watch, in one of the world's smallest 3-D movies, as brains, eyes and other organs form. A team at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, watched zebra fish and fruit fly embryos develop under the scope for as long as 58 hours, charting the location of every cell as it danced around the embryo. This experiment would have been impossible a mere two years ago before a recent spate of innovations advanced microscopy years into the future.When it comes to watching the inner workings of cells , fluorescence microscopy is second to none. In this technique, scientists attach fluorescent tags to cellular proteins and, by shining a laser on the cells, cause them to light up. [More] European Molecular Biology Laboratory - Heidelberg - Biology - Cell - Methods and Techniques

A Few Drug-Resistant Bacteria May Keep the Whole Colony Alive

There’s been an unexpected development in our understanding of drug resistance in bacteria. The accepted scenario was a simple case of evolutionary selection. In a bacterial population exposed to a killer drug, a few lucky individuals might have a genetic mutation that kept them alive. They survived to reproduce, while the rest of the population perished. In short order, the entire colony consisted only of the offspring of the drug-resistant founders. [More] Drug resistance - Bacteria - Population - Health - Mutation

Cooking For Geeks: Jeff Potter on Experimenting in the Kitchen

Jeff Potter, author of Cooking For Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks and Good Food , talks with daily podcast correspondent Cynthia Graber, and podcast host Steve Mirsky (picture left) tests your knowledge of some recent science in the news. [More] Steve Mirsky - Podcast - Good Food - Cooking - Author

Wee ants protect African savanna trees from elephants

It's a David versus Goliath kind of story, with an ecological twist: In African savannas (regions with both trees and grass), acacia-dwelling ants can repel voracious, tree-eating elephants, according to new research by published online September 2 in Current Biology . [More] Tree - Savanna - Current Biology - Goliath - Biology

Readers Respond on "Revolutionary Rail"

Digital Revolution Pathologists are traditionally seen as being detached from everyday clinical practice, which explains why we were so pleasantly surprised when we came across the interesting article “ A Better Lens on Disease ,” by Mike May. Even before the digital revolution, pathologists had developed rudimentary ways (mainly photographs) to capture histological images and submit them to one another for a second opinion. Nowadays such a procedure is adopted usefully at small hospitals in developing countries to refer unusual or difficult cases to internationally recognized European or U.S. pathology departments. [More] Pathology - Medicine - Histology - Health - Second opinion

Worms for brains: Can genes point the way to the cerebral cortex's common ancestor with marine annelids?

Marine worms might seem like lowly, slow-witted creatures, but new gene mapping shows that we might share an ancient brainy ancestor with them. [More] Gene - Annelid - Cerebral cortex - Common descent - Worms

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