What's Current in

Life Sciences

illustration of neurons and chemical signaling

Hormone cycles shape the structure and function of key memory regions in the brain

Read Article

A fruit fly larva with imagined electric field lines in the background.
Photo Credit
Sakkmesterke vi Adobe Stock
Fruit fly larvae will reorient themselves toward the negative pole of an electric field.

Scientists discover that fruit fly larvae can sense electric fields
In Focus placeholder

New microCT machine unites biologists and materials scientists
3D rendering of a polymer chain
Photo Credit
iStock
A 3D rendering of a polymer chain

Advancing polymer chemistry through collaboration and innovation
Daniela Soto at her lab bench
Photo Credit
Jordan Strauss / AP Images for HHMI
Daniela Soto

UCSB postdoc receives competitive award to investigate the genetic changes that shaped the human mind
In Focus placeholder

Yang Yang’s wizardry with enzymes earns him early career recognition
A human brain against a background of double helices.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Differences in gene expression, not just their presence, seems to drive the remarkable specialization found in the human brain.

It’s all about expression
In Focus placeholder

Six UCSB researchers named among world’s most influential scientists
Three mountain yellow-legged frogs perched on a rock.
Photo Credit
Roland Knapp
The Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog is recovering in Yosemite, a beacon of hope for amphibian conservation.

Frog populations once decimated by disease mount a major comeback
Yellow silhouettes of a large female and small male mosquito facing away from each other.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
If a male mosquito can’t hear a female, it’s as though she doesn’t exist.

Deaf male mosquitoes don’t mate
side by side photos of ferret and penguin
Ferrets are among the vertebrates that get the most tumors, while black footed penguins get the fewest

Researchers complete the largest compilation of cancer prevalence across vertebrates
In Focus placeholder

UCSB, Community Environmental Council to hold Living with Fire Summit
An electron-microscopy image of the fruit fly's anterior visual pathway
Photo Credit
Dustin Garner, Emil Kind
An electron-microscopy image of the fruit fly's anterior visual pathway — all neurons involved in processing visual information and conveying it to the navigation center in the fly brain. Compass neurons are in the circular area at the center

Researchers' reconstruction of fruit fly’s anterior visual pathway will lead to insights into animal navigation
Subscribe to Life Sciences