When it comes to finding a used book on the Internet, one merely needs to Google the title, and a few suitable items for sale will soon be just a click away. But for the biologist or medical researcher looking for information on how two nematode genes interrelate in hopes of better understanding human disease, there is a clear need for a more focused search engine.

If you think it doesn't do much good to swipe the fly that's going after the potato salad, guess again. You may be discouraging the fly's colleagues from taking up the raid.

Ubiquitin is a small protein that has a very big job. Or jobs, to be more accurate. Indeed, the ubiquitin system is central to--literally--just about everything significant that goes on inside cells, and to a lot of intercellular business as well. Once unknown and, until the 1980s, unheralded, the ubiquitin system is now one of the major areas of study in cell biology, biochemistry, and genetics, and the point of convergence for many disparate disciplines.

PASADENA, Calif. — Oriented cell division is a fundamental process in developing organisms, whether you are a worm, a fruit fly--or a human. As an embryo begins to grow, cells divide again and again, from the single fertilized egg to the countless cells present at birth.

One of the big problems in biology is keeping track of the proteins a cell makes, without having to kill the cell. Now, researchers from the California Institute of Technology have developed a general approach that measures protein production in living cells.

PASADENA—Edward Lewis, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking studies of how genes regulate the development of specific regions of the body, died Wednesday, July 21, 2004, at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena after a long battle with cancer. He was 86.

Another milestone has been achieved in the quest to create prosthetic devices operated by brain activity. In the July 9 issue of the journal Science, California Institute of Technology neuroscientists Sam Musallam, Brian Corneil, Bradley Greger, Hans Scherberger, and Richard Andersen report on the Andersen lab's success in getting monkeys to move the cursor on a computer screen by merely thinking about a goal they would like to achieve, and assigning a value to the goal.

Embargoed: Not for Release Until 11:00 a.m. PDT Thursday, 24 June, 2004

PASADENA, Calif. — The brain is a maddeningly complex organ for scientists to understand. No assumption can remain unchallenged, no given taken as a given.

You're driving along in your car and catch a glimpse of a green SUV out of the corner of your eye. A few seconds later, you glance over, and to your surprise discover that the SUV is actually brown.

PASADENA—Two members of the California Institute of Technology faculty, chemist Harry Gray and biologist Seymour Benzer, are among this year's recipients of the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Medals.