News & Views in 2009

Automated stage-specific sorting of Caenorhabditis elegans embryos enables next-generation molecular and biochemical analysis of development.

Methods for error correction and classification of metagenomic datasets suggest that the rare biosphere is not as large as previously assumed.

A three-dimensional digital atlas allows cell-by-cell navigation of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Real-time lineage tracing in flies gets a boost with three techniques to specifically label a progenitor's daughter cells.

Transposon mutagenesis coupled with microarray analysis helps to rapidly generate information about changing genotype-phenotype relationships in laboratory-evolved bacteria.

An approach using multiple fluorochrome combinations allows the simultaneous detection of many T-cell populations within a single blood sample.

Sub-microsecond, downhill-reaction protein folding can be investigated by a method to generate large and fast pressure drops. The approach is complementary to nanosecond temperature-jump methods and could provide new insights into the biophysics of protein folding.

Applying modern machine-vision techniques to the study of animal behavior, two groups developed systems that quantify many aspects of the complex social behaviors of Drosophila melanogaster. These software tools will enable high-throughput screens that seek to uncover the cellular and molecular underpinnings of behavior.

A multilaboratory study attempts to dispel some of the notions of the irreproducibility of mass spectrometry–based proteomics by pinpointing where the methodological problems are and where challenges remain.

A transposon-based approach has been added to the growing arsenal of technologies to produce transgene-free and potentially safer induced pluripotent stem cells.

Some scientists suggest that environmental standardization may lead to spurious findings. The implication from this hypothesis will likely be controversial.

Deep sequencing of DNase I–treated yeast DNA yields genome-wide information on chromatin transitions as well as protein binding in these regions.

A method to improve the sensitivity of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy promises to extend this technology to larger and more biologically interesting systems than previously feasible.

A microfluidic device enhances the efficiency of cell membrane fusion by increasing the efficiency of cell pairing.

Two groups present new photoactivatable fluorescent proteins that will be useful for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy.

A new strategy is presented to functionally knock down microRNAs in a mouse.