The Nature of Science

Last week's molecule was tetrahydrofolate, an essential cofactor in several reactions; notably the synthesis of thymidine. The winner wa...

Last week's molecule was allantoin, the breakdown product of uric acid that's found in the urine of mammals. Other animals can degra...

One of the remarkable things about kooks is that they are incredibly resistant to learning from their mistakes. James Shapiro gives us a fin...

Last week's molecule was N -(2-aminoethyl)glycine, a molecule that has been used to build artificial DNA molecules. The winner was Micha...

Last week's molecule was capsaicin, the molecule responsible for the "hot" sensation of chili peppers. There were two winners:...

Last week's molecule was photosystem I (PSI). Mikkel Rasmussen was the only one to get it right [ Monday's Molecule #191 ]. I though...

Last week's molecule was L-dopa. The winner was Raul A. Félix de Sousa (again, but this time only by four minutes!) [ Monday's Molec...

Last week's molecules were cis Δ 9 -octadecanic acid (oleic acid) and trans Δ 9 -octadecanic acid (elaidic acid). Last week's winn...

There's been a lot of talk recently about the discussion on reddit concerning the ENCODE publicity fiasco. Here's the forum ... AskS...

Last week's molecule was N -formylmethionyl-tRNA f Met [ Monday's Molecule #188 ]. Only three people came close. The winner was Mik...

There are several dozen scientists and graduate students in my department studying various aspects of protein evolution, structure, and fold...

Last week's molecule was the core nucleosome complex [ Monday's Molecule #186 ] and nobody who was eligible for a win got it! That...

Last week's molecules were the four common nuleosides in DNA [ Monday's Molecule #185 ]. The winner was Matt Talarico. This week I...

Lots of people don't understand the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology and that's probably why there are so many articles announcing...

Last week's molecule was warfarin, a rat poison with another role [ Monday's Molecule #184 ]. The winner was Matt McFarlane. This we...

Here's an excellent example of what's wrong with the way the ENCODE Consortium is interpreting their data. Congratulations to Michae...

The Nature issue containing the latest ENCODE Consortium papers also has a New & Views article called "Genomics: ENCODE explained...

Ed Yong is a science journalist and usually he's a very good one. This time, however, he should have gotten the other side of the story....

Last week's molecule was raltitrexid, an anti-cancer drug [ Monday's Molecule #183 ]. The winner was Raul A. Félix de Sousa. Raul h...

Tim Radford reviews The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins [ The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins – book review ]. The review is a bit late—the...