New research suggests that viruses are using information from their environment to “decide” when to sit tight inside their hosts and when to multiply and burst out, killing the host cell. Right now, viruses are exploiting the ability to monitor their environment to their benefit. But in the future, “we could exploit it to their detriment,” Ivan Erill, senior author on the new paper, says.

The generation of a high-quality genome from a coral specimen reveals an alternative pathway for cysteine biosynthesis in animals and cautions against overreliance on model organisms.

The way in which we experience music and speech differs from what has until now been believed. This is the conclusion of a study by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, and the Oregon Health and Science University, USA. The results have been published in Science Advances, and may make it possible to design better cochlear implants.

The University of Cincinnati's Pankaj Desai, PhD, has received a $1.19 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to continue research into the use of a drug called letrozole to treat glioblastomas, the most deadly form of brain tumors.

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital identified the mechanism by which Williams-Beuren Syndrome enhances the ability to discriminate between sounds as interneuron hyperexcitability in the auditory cortex.