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The Case of Deborah Rice: Who is the Environmental Protection Agency Protecting?

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Why did the EPA dismiss a highly respected neurotoxicologist as chair of its external review panel on the fire retardant deca? Pioneering lead researcher Herbert Needleman, MD, argues that the answer has little to do with science.

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Birds Do It, Bees Do It, but Candida albicans Does It Differently

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The opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans has a cryptic parasexual mating cycle characterized by chromosome loss. New evidence shows that genetic recombination occurs during the mating cycle and requires the activity of Spo11, a protein necessary for meiotic recombination in other eukaryotes.

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Interesting Structures: Education and Outreach at the RCSB Protein Data Bank

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The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank is part of an international consortium that works not only to make the data describing the 3-D shape of biological macromolecules available worldwide, but also to increase their usefulness in science, medicine, and education.

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The Challenge of Conserving Amphibian Megadiversity in Madagascar

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Highly diverse and—so far—apparently untouched by emergent diseases, Malagasy frogs nevertheless are threatened by ongoing habitat destruction, making pro-active conservation actions especially important for preserving this unique, pre-decline, amphibian fauna.

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Why We Sleep: The Temporal Organization of Recovery

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Why we sleep seems like a simple question, yet it has baffled scientists for generations. Based on recent data, Emmanuel Mignot argues that the function of sleep is essentially a resilient form of cellular recovery, organized anatomically and temporally by natural evolution, that has taken on additional functions over time.

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Polycomb Group Genes: Keeping Stem Cell Activity in Balance

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Overexpression of Polycomb group genes is often associated with cancer development, whereas complete deletion results in loss of stem cell activity. New studies show that partial loss of function of Polycomb group genes enhances the activity of blood stem/progenitor cells.

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April 2008 Issue

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PLoS Biology is a peer-reviewed open-access journal featuring research articles of exceptional significance in all areas of biological science, from molecules to ecosystems.

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