John Travis

All Stories by John Travis

  1. Health & Medicine

    Protective enzyme has a downside: Asthma

    The abnormal production of a parasite-fighting enzyme contributes to asthma.

  2. Watching the biological clock

    Biologists now have a way to predict when a woman will start menopause.

  3. Dying before Their Time

    Genetically engineered mice that get prematurely old give hints to the causes of aging.

  4. Two-handed protein may protect DNA

    An unusually shaped protein may help a bacterium thrive in tough times.

  5. Drug-resistance gene found—again

    A mutant gene confers resistance to chloroquine upon parasites that cause malaria.

  6. Study casts doubt on minibacteria

    Results from polymerase chain reaction experiments challenge the existence of ultratiny microbes called nanobacteria.

  7. Comfortably Numb

    Scientists are finding the molecular targets of anesthetics.

  8. Mr. Universe Jr.: Child’s gene mutation confirms protein’s role in human-muscle growth

    A boy born with extra-large muscles has mutations in a gene regulating muscle growth.

  9. Do Antibodies Pack a Deadly Punch?

    These immune molecules may directly kill, not just tag, microbes.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Lithium increases gray matter in the brain

    Used for decades to treat manic depression, lithium may stimulate the production of new brain cells, thus raising hope that it can treat strokes, Alzheimer's disease, and other conditions that kill brain cells.

  11. Bubble Trouble: Mad cow proteins may hitch a ride between cells

    Prions, the proteins behind mad cow disease, may travel between cells in bubbles called exosomes.

  12. Sperm defender has second role

    An antimicrobial protein may also trigger maturation of sperm.