Sweet Potato Sends Secret Signals

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January 24, 2020

Dear Reader, A type of sweet potato emits a strong smell when its leaves are bitten by pests. The odor alerts neighboring plants to prepare for attack. New research tracks this intriguing defense mechanism. At Stanford University, scientists are using organoid models of parts of the human forebrain to study how gene activity drives neural development. Their findings could shed light on the origins of disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. And the latest on the deadly virus emerging from China: a second case of infection has been discovered in the U.S. The patient is a woman who returned to Chicago from Wuhan last week.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Biology Sweet Potato Sends Secret Signals One variety alerts neighbors to keep pests at bay By Priyanka Runwal

Neuroscience "Organoids" Reveal How Human Forebrain Develops Studying gene expression in human brain tissue grown in the lab could offer insight into disorders such as autism By Simon Makin

Public Health CDC Reports Second U.S. Case of Novel Virus Spreading in China The patient had recently returned to Chicago from Wuhan By Helen Branswell,STAT

Environment Plastics Plants Are Poised to Be the Next Big Carbon Superpolluters A boom in petrochemical plants driven by cheap natural gas could lock in greenhouse emissions for decades to come By Benjamin Storrow,E&E News

Biology Curiosity Killed the ... Mouse? The cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii boosts curiosity in mice—which makes them more likely to be caught by cats, thus continuing the parasite's life cycle. Karen Hopkin reports. By Karen Hopkin | 03:40

Public Health Four "Generations" of Spread Seen with Virus in China, Alarming Experts Evidence suggests at least one Chinese patient ignited a chain of human-to-human transmission By Helen Branswell,STAT

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 27, Issue 4s

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Building a Brain in the Lab Scientists copy nature's most complex organ in the hope of solving the mysteries of brain disorders, from autism to Alzheimer's By Juergen A. Knoblich | January 2017

QUOTE OF THE DAY "We first have to create this map of the developing brain but ultimately use it to understand disease, because that's the promise." Sergiu Paca, Psychiatrist at Stanford University

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