Issue | March 2021 | Viruses' Sex Bias | The Scientist Magazine®

Features

Sex Differences in Immune Responses to Viral Infection

Catherine Offord | Mar 1, 2021 | 10+ min read

Stronger interferon production, greater T cell activation, and increased susceptibility to autoimmunity are just some of the ways that females seem to differ from males.

Free Fallin’: How Scientists Study Unrestrained Insects

Amanda Heidt | Mar 1, 2021 | 10+ min read

Researchers are pulling from video games, sports broadcasting, meteorology, and even missile guidance technology to better investigate how insects have mastered flight.

Editorial

Democratized Discovery

In a triumph for science, COVID-19 statistics are finally trending favorably in the US. We must make sure the rest of the world is not left behind.

Speaking of Science

Ten Minute Sabbatical

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.

Critic at Large

Opinion: Toward Better Data Sharing

The network effect can improve the ways that biomedical researchers collaborate.

Notebook

Researchers Propose Automating the Naming of Novel Microbes

With modern technologies unearthing novel bacterial and archaeal species by the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, manually naming them all is no longer practical, scientists say.

Deep-Sea Jelly Reignites Debate on Remote Species Identification

Researchers say they have discovered a novel species of comb jelly using video footage, but they couldn’t recover a physical specimen. Is that enough?

Scientist to Watch

Derek Applewhite’s Actin Research Inspires the Next Generation

The biologist’s undergraduate-centered lab allows students to play a meaningful role in research.

The Literature

Macrophages of the Human Eye Come into Focus

Imaged in real time in living people, immune cells at the surface of the retina could serve as biomarkers to detect retinal and possibly neurological diseases and track their progression.

Neurons for Taste Loosely Distributed in Mouse Gustatory Cortex

Neurological representations of different tastes—like those of different smells but unlike those of sight, hearing, and touch—do not cluster in distinct spots within a murine brain region, a study shows.

Long-Lived Trees’ Epigenetic Mutations Serve as a Molecular Clock

Cells found in different branches of a tree have different patterns of DNA methylation, changes in which accumulate over time.

Careers

Science with Borders: Researchers Navigate Red Tape

Scientists who work with foreign biological specimens face a patchwork of permits that threaten to block their projects, with potentially harmful consequences for the ecosystems they study.

Reading Frames

Lessons from Darwin’s “Mischievous” Birds

An unsung group of South American falcons yields clues to the prehistory of a continent, and hints at secrets of the avian brain.

Foundations

Identity Crisis, 1906

A famous account of multiple personality disorder in the early 20th century foreshadowed a century of controversial diagnoses and debate among psychiatrists.

Infographics

Infographic: Envisioning Macrophages

Researchers find different distributions of the immune cells in young, older, and diseased eyes.

Infographic: How SARS-CoV-2 Immune Responses May Differ by Sex

Males and females show differences in gene expression, cell activation, and antibody production in response to some viral infections, but whether these influence COVID-19 outcomes is still unclear.