A system once tied to DNA organization in cyanobacteria has evolved into a structure that shapes the cell itself. This shift ...

Biologists are closing in on a puzzle that seems to turn classic evolutionary logic inside out, yet may be so common that it deserves to be called a new rule of life. Instead of always purging harmful ...

A new study, led by the University of Vienna and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, shows how the eyes of adult marine bristleworms continue to grow throughout life—driven by a ring of ...

Researchers from the University of Sydney have developed a system that mimics natural selection inside living mammalian cells but in a very controlled setting. They call it PROTEUS, short for PROTein ...

Ten years ago, nobody knew that Asgard archaea even existed. In 2015, however, researchers examining deep-sea sediments discovered gene fragments that indicated a new and previously undiscovered form ...

A new platform combines rational protein design with continuous evolution to discover functional molecules more efficiently. In medicine and biotechnology, the ability to evolve proteins with new or ...

The rapid advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming biology and opening new directions for scientific inquiry.

As 2025 comes to a close, the editors at The Scientist asked researchers to reflect on the biggest breakthroughs in cell biology this year. They named advances in everything from embryo models for ...

Cyanobacteria—ancient microbes that oxygenated Earth and made complex life possible—are still revealing surprises billions of ...

The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the ...