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By observing how the cells in the zebrafish's skin responded to injury, the Duke team learned a lot about the skin regeneration process and were surprised by its complexity. They saw that in the hours following a fin amputation, for example, zebrafish regenerated skin through three different mechanisms: the "recruitment" of spare skin cells from other areas, a temporary doubling in size in some pre-existing cells, and the creation of completely new cells.

 A team of scientists has announced that the age of the synthetic chromosome is upon us, as a study published in Science today reveals how the group was able to construct a yeast chromosome from scratch - an experiment that allowed the team to make fully functional "designer yeast."

Malaria has long been a problem in Mali. But in 2006, the situation got worse: a malaria-carrying mosquito species named Anopheles coluzzii became increasingly resistant to common insecticides. Scientists searched for an explanation in its genes. Somehow, the species had acquired mutations that were previously only found in another species, Anopheles gambiae - despite the fact that these two species didn't usually mate with each other, and that their hybrids tended to die without producing offspring of their own, the mutations were identical.