Sometimes, a DNA sequencer is more than it seems. In this month’s Technology Feature, I talk to the researchers who have figured out ways to squeeze new life from an outdated DNA sequencer, the Illumina GAIIx. That’s a popular choice for sequencer-hackers, but not the only one. Stanford structural biologist Joseph Puglisi uses a PacBio RSII from Pacific Biosciences to plumb the biochemistry of protein translation. Read more
Early in his graduate career, John Blischak found himself creating figures for his advisor’s grant application. Read more
In late 2014, just a month after learning he had won that year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for superresolution microscopy, Eric Betzig and colleagues described a technique that has taken the microscopy world by storm. Read more
Mark Clemons has published over 250 papers over the past two-plus decades, nearly all of them involving breast cancer. So imagine his surprise when Clemons, a medical oncologist at the University of Ottawa, Canada, received a flattering email inviting him to submit his work to, of all places, a journal focusing on yoga research. Read more
Life science research increasingly runs on software. A good fraction, perhaps even most of it, is made by academics, for academics: Rough around the edges, perhaps, but effective — not to mention free. But, is it of high quality? Read more
For the 1 February issue of Nature magazine, I wrote a Toolbox article on interactive figures. Unlike static PDFs or JPEGs, these figures allow users to explore the underlying data and code used to create them, for instance to zoom in on a crowded region of interest, or to probe the robustness of a computational model. Read more
Fluorescence microscopy has transformed the life sciences. By attaching fluorescent dyes or proteins to cellular structures, researchers can image fine cellular morphology; track molecular localization, motion, and dynamics; and more. But fluorescence microscopy also presents significant obstacles. One of those is multiplexing. Read more
The term “genome-editing” has become synonymous with CRISPR-Cas. But there’s more than one way to edit a genome, and each has its pros and cons. Read more
The current focus on single-cell biology reflects the growing awareness among life scientists that all cells are not alike. Read more
TechBlog: eLife replaces commenting system with Hypothesis annotations
Posted by Jeffrey Perkel | Categories: Blog, Technology
The next time you feel moved to comment on an article in the open-access online journal eLife, be prepared for a different user experience. Read more
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