John Travis

All Stories by John Travis

  1. The Bad Seed

    Researchers are racing to identify tumor-forming stem cells in skin, lung, pancreatic, and many other cancers.

  2. Scrambled Dogma: Stem cells may make new eggs in women

    Scientists may have come up with a new explanation for how a woman's biological clock works.

  3. Sunny Solution: Lotion speeds DNA repair, protects mice from skin cancer

    Snippets of DNA that activate a cell's DNA repair process may protect mice from skin cancer caused by ultraviolet radiation.

  4. Keeping abreast of serotonin’s roles

    Serotonin, a chemical typically associated with the brain, also controls milk production in mammary glands.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Tea for Too Much Bilirubin?

    A special tea may be an alternative to fluorescent lights for treating newborns who suffer from jaundice.

  6. Blocked gene gives mice super smell

    Deactivating a single gene can produce mice with an abnormally sharp sense of smell.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Pill Puzzle: Do antibiotics increase breast cancer risk?

    A new study links antibiotic use to breast cancer, although it's not clear the drugs cause the disease.

  8. Tailoring Therapies: Cloned human embryo provides stem cells

    Scientists have for the first time carried test-tube cloning of a human embryo to the stage at which it can yield stem cells.

  9. Bacteria do the twist

    A newly identified bacterial protein generates the sinuous shapes of some bacteria.

  10. Code Breakers

    Chemical tags applied to proteins that DNA wraps around regulate genetic activity.

  11. Gassing Up: Oxygen’s rise may have promoted complex life

    The increasing amount of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere may have driven the emergence of complex life.

  12. Growth factors make an egg grow up

    Scientists have identified growth factors that enable a female mammal's eggs to mature.