Q&A

The Scientist spoke with Jonathan Kagan about his idea that immune cells respond to “errors” made by unsuccessful pathogens, not the pathogens themselves.

Cofounders of a microbiome biobank speak with The Scientist about their new partnership with nonprofit OpenBiome and how to ethically work with donors.

The Scientist speaks with paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill, who won one of the 24 awards recognizing efforts to communicate scientific issues to the general public.

The journal’s executive director speaks with The Scientist about what it hopes to accomplish with its unusual new publishing model.

The Scientist spoke with microbiologist William Whitman about a new system of nomenclature for prokaryotic organisms that can’t be cultured.

The Scientist spoke with Maximilien Chaumon about his database showing how COVID-19 related lockdowns warped more 2,800 people’s perception of time.

The Scientist asks Brigham and Women’s Hospital infectious disease specialist Lindsey Baden about testing for prior infections.

Height and onset of menarche are among traits linked to previously unidentified genetic variants in noncoding regions of the human genome.

While much is known about how the brains of English speakers process language, research has neglected people who speak other languages. The Scientist spoke with one of the authors of a study that seeks to change that.

University of Wollongong epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz speaks with The Scientist about his team’s finding that flawed and fraudulent COVID-19 research continues to be cited.

The Scientist spoke with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers Scott Weiss and Yang-Yu Liu, who propose that people bank stool samples when they’re young and healthy so that they can be transplanted to rejuvenate the gut microbiome later on.

The longer and farther the virus spreads, the more likely it could become endemic in new areas, says UCLA epidemiologist Anne Rimoin.

The Scientist speaks with Trier University’s Henrik Krehenwinkel, whose group recently detected traces of hundreds of arthropod species from a sample of dried plants—in this case, the contents of a tea bag.

The Scientist spoke to hyena researcher Eve Davidian for a broad look at power relationships between male and female mammals.

The Scientist spoke with Ohio State University microbiologist Matthew Sullivan about a recent expedition that identified thousands of RNA viruses from water samples and cataloged them into novel phylogenic groups.

The Scientist spoke to Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory’s Jim Strickland about the institute’s new MDI Bioscience initiative to perform more drug testing and development in nonmammalian models.

Archaeologist and paleontologist Juan Carlos Cisneros tells The Scientist that researchers frequently fail to involve local groups—and sometimes violate laws—when studying Latin American fossils.

Denmark’s Novo Nordisk Foundation says it hopes that adding a randomization step to its award process will reduce implicit biases in selection and lead to funding more innovative, impactful research.

The Scientist spoke with University of California, San Francisco, neuroscientist Eleanor Palser about her study’s finding that women, especially those working outside the US, are underrepresented in some areas of academic publishing.