Flux towers are equipped with inlets for "sniffing the air " above the forest, in addition to other instruments such as sonic anemometers for measuring wind. For the first time, scientists have been successful in measuring the processes by which an entire forest "breathes," using sophisticated technology involving flux towers and new instrumentation that can precisely measure two different types (isotopes) of carbon dioxide in the air. A team led by Richard Wehr and Scott Saleska at the University of Arizona obtained detailed long-term measurements of the respiration and photosynthesis rates of a temperate deciduous forest during the day and the night.

Gene drive technologies may one day help alleviate the burden caused by diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and other animal vectors. The BioScience Talks podcast features discussions of topical issues related to the biological sciences.

Tumor DNA is cluttered with genomic alterations, the vast majority of which have little or no functional or clinical relevance. This means that even when cancer researchers discover an alteration in a tumor or a line of cancer cells, the alteration may or may not be relevant to the progression of the disease - chances are good (and history has shown) that many alterations that are correlated with cancer are not causative of cancer; many alterations are "passengers" rather than "drivers". A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Cancer Research demonstrates a novel method for sorting passenger from driver alterations, and uses this method to pinpoint a new driver and potential therapeutic target in cancer progression, GON4L.