For decades, researchers have noticed that tiny chemicals called “methyl groups” piggyback on DNA molecules, and that they occur in certain patterns. Intrigued by the meaning and function of methylation patterns, especially as they relate to medicine, a five-year, $ 190-million-dollar research effort funded by the National Institutes of Health began in 2008.

Certain bacteria can detect direction with ultra-tiny magnets that use bits of magnetic metals organized into structures called “magnetosomes.” Magnetosomes automatically orient to the earth’s magnetic field, and the bacteria use this information as a kind of cellular GPS when they’re traveling.

In 1992, researchers discovered a giant virus with so much DNA that some have called it a “viral missing link.” Evolutionary scientists claimed that it has features that reflect both a living cell and non-living matter, and may thus provide a clue as to the origin of the first cell.¹ But new high resolution images and a closer inspection of this massive virus actually point to design

Hormones are small chemical switches that turn on or off different cellular systems. They are tissue-specific, most often produced by the tissue of one organ, distributed in mammals via the bloodstream, then received by precise protein receptors found elsewhere in the body.

Researchers at Wayne State University in Michigan have uncovered a key step in the formation of antibodies. It was already known that the immune system generates a variety of antibodies in response to an invading pathogen. The recent study discovered that many of the necessary antibody variations are produced when a cellular copying procedure is slowed down.¹