The problem of cell type became clear to genome biologist Jason Buenrostro in 2013. He was studying a cell line derived from someone with cancer, trying to map out how the DNA was arranged in the ...

The chemical reactions on which life depends need a place to happen. That place is the cell. All the things which biology recognises as indisputably alive are either cells or conglomerations of cells ...

A small but enthusiastic group of neuroscientists is exhuming overlooked experiments and performing new ones to explore whether cells record past experiences — fundamentally challenging what memory is ...

How is it that you’re alive? It’s a question that we rarely ask ourselves—but it’s one that has a definite answer. We all know our heart pumps life-giving oxygen throughout our bodies. How does that ...

When you were first conceived, you were a single cell. From this basic fact, we can extrapolate a few things, most especially that all the cells that make up your body today came (indirectly) from ...

Whether it’s counting red blood cells under a light microscope or recording bursts of electricity as neurons fire, scientists spend a lot of time studying cells. With such a diversity in form and ...

A human cell is a Rube Goldberg machine like no other, full of biological chain reactions that make the difference between life and death. Understanding these delicate relationships and how they go ...

Cell culture is a fundamental technique in biotechnology and life sciences that involves growing and maintaining living cells outside their natural environment, typically in a controlled laboratory ...

A growing body of work suggests that cell metabolism — the chemical reactions that provide energy and building materials — plays a vital, overlooked role in the first steps of life. Each of us starts ...