Nature uses a common framework when building organisms as different as yeast, worms, fruit flies, mice, and humans. This makes it possible for scientists to learn about how our own genes work by ...

What do a frog, a filamentous fungus, and a water flea have in common? They are all model organisms for biomedical research. This aptly named site through the NIH brings all model organisms into the ...

_E. coli_ as a model organism helped researchers better understand how DNA works. Ed Horowitz Photography/The Image Bank via Getty Images Luck likely played a role in its rise in popularity among ...

Model organisms are non-human, widely-studied, well-characterized organisms that are used to make important basic biological discoveries, understanding disease mechanisms, and by extension are ...

Research in evolutionary developmental biology, known as "evo-devo," is being held back because the dominant model organisms used by scientists are unable to illustrate key questions about evolution, ...

Studies of model organisms such as mice and fruit flies can improve scientists' understanding of the neural basis of emotion, according to one researcher. Scientists know little about how the brain ...

The ocean's smallest engineers, calcifying plankton, quietly regulate Earth's thermostat by capturing and cycling carbon.

Have you ever wondered how biologists choose what animal to use in their research? Since scientists can't do a lot of basic research on people, they study animals to shed light on everything from ...

Model organisms satisfy a research need for genetic uniformity and live happily in the controlled hum of the laboratory. But existing models lack many interesting traits and are limited when it comes ...

Scientists know little about how the brain creates and controls emotions - an uncertainty that presents a major obstacle in the effort to develop treatments for emotional disorders. "The study of the ...