Decline of an important anti-cancer gene could contribute to increased cancer risk among the elderly. (p. 213)

By depleting an essential amino acid and releasing a toxin, cancer cells can ward off attack by the immune system. (p. 196)

The malaria parasite's reliance on a sugar in the gut of mosquitoes may offer a way to block the disease's transmission. (p. 206)

Rice with an added gene needs less water and can survive drought. (p. 205)

A gene that normally helps cells overcome stress can also promote cancer, perhaps offering a new target for cancer treatment. (p. 179)

Some viruses create cocoonlike refuges in the cells they invade, shielding them from the cell's defense mechanisms. (p. 157)

The virus that causes AIDS can also cause dementia, by both killing mature brain cells and blocking the creation of new ones. (p. 157)

Axons are not simply passive carriers of electrical signals in the brain, but influence how neurons fire. (p. 148)

Bacteria swap genes all the time, but it now appears that they can give their DNA to some animals as well. (p. 131)

Overproduction of antioxidants, usually thought to be beneficial, is the cause of an inherited heart disease. (p. 141)

In social amoebas, sluglike clusters of usually independent organisms, certain cells take on a protective role that hints at the origin of immune systems in higher animals. (p. 125)

Stem cells that discredited researcher Woo Suk Hwang claimed as the first example of human cloning actually came from embryos that contained only the mother's genetic material. (p. 69)

Mice lived longer when they were fooled into sensing lower insulin levels than they actually had. (p. 62)