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A Brief History of GFP
How a chance discovery in bioluminescent jellyfish led to one of the most transformative tools in modern biology: green fluorescent protein.
 • 
Smrithi Sunil
1
China’s Clinical Trial Boom
In 2017, there were just over 600 clinical trials initiated in China. By 2023, that number was nearly 2,000. How can American companies kick off a…
 • 
Hiya Jain
5
Eulogy to the Obits
With a litany of gene therapies and longevity medicine staving off biological death, those paid to write about it must reimagine their craft.
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Alexandra Balwit
5
Can Plants Really “See”?
Some researchers claim that a Chilean vine can mimic the leaves of a plastic houseplant thanks to a form of primitive vision. But extraordinary claims…
2
The Magic of Fast Feedback Loops
Why biologists should operate with a sense of urgency.
 • 
Stephen Malina
12
Recipe for a Cell
While we know how to break organisms down to their constituent parts, even at the atomic level, building them from scratch remains difficult.
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Niko McCarty
8
On Prions and Protein Design
Prions are extremely resilient, infectious proteins. Studying their shape-shifting abilities could reveal lessons for how proteins fold at a molecular…
9
The Origins of Adjuvants
More than a century after the invention of vaccines, a veterinarian stumbled across a technique to boost their efficacy in an unlikely way — by…
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Asimov Press
2

March 2025

The Nobel Duel
A cautionary tale about the competitive pressures of scientific research, and how they alter the course of history.
 • 
Metacelsus
13
What Limits a Cell’s Size?
Two physical constraints help explain why cells are so tiny: surface area-to-volume ratios and diffusion. The first article in our new Data Series.
 • 
Niko McCarty
8
A Brief History of the Miracle Bacterium
Serratia marcescens, a pathogen with an uncanny resemblance to blood, has had an outsized influence on modern science.
 • 
Corrado Nai
1
Meet the Humans Building AI Scientists
A look inside FutureHouse, a nonprofit research institute in San Francisco.
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Asimov Press
2
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