Medieval European plague genomes hint at Black Death’s travels
A more complete phylogeny of plague bacteria yields a clearer pandemic picture.
Diana Gitig
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Diana Gitig
Associate Writer
dmgitig@gmail.com
Diana received her B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, and then a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Genetics from Cornell. Now she is a freelance science writer and editor in New York. Diana likes rock climbing, yoga, swimming, baking, and eating yummy baked treats.
Recent stories by
Diana Gitig
Researchers grow a placenta in a petri dish
The organ is essential for pregnancy but has been nearly impossible to study.
Diana Gitig
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Soy milk, almond milk, oat milk. Spider milk?
Wonder how the FDA is going to classify this one.
Diana Gitig
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154
Sick ants stay away from the kids
They stay out, at work, to protect everyone in the nest from infection.
Diana Gitig
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Collating memories of what happened based on where it happened
Rats keep track of a position in two different ways.
Diana Gitig
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Sugar cures cancer! (Not really, but one sugar may help chemo)
Mannose slows the growth of tumor cells and can synergize with chemotherapy.
Diana Gitig
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Ahh, summer—ramlibacter season
A catalog of the living things that float through the air.
Diana Gitig
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Understanding the Brain is a catalog of all we don’t know about the brain
Updated version of Creating Mind mostly tells us what we don’t understand.
Diana Gitig
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Most Read
Low-caste men in India cooperate like college students
How you manage cooperation depends on how you perceive its lack.
Diana Gitig
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Llama “nanobodies” might grant universal flu protection
Antibodies made in a llama protected mice from sixty flu strains.
Diana Gitig
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102
Healthy tissues in older people carry a lot of cancer-promoting mutations
Some mutations help cells divide faster, but they don’t seem to lead to cancer.
Diana Gitig
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Supercool brines on Mars may contain enough oxygen to support aerobic life
It’s still simple life, though, and the oxygen is mostly at the frigid poles.
Diana Gitig
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Trauma of US Civil War POW experience affected the next generation
But only for those POWs held when camp conditions were really bad.
Diana Gitig
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A roadmap to agriculture that’s sustainable and climate-neutral
Keeping agriculture from doing long-term damage ultimately involves eating less.
Diana Gitig
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The nightmarishly complex wheat genome finally yields to scientists
Researchers finally finish sorting through the crop’s six sets of chromosomes.
Diana Gitig
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86
The humans are coming! HIDE!
Mammalian species around the globe are becoming night-owls in order to avoid us.
Diana Gitig
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82
Ecological “law” turns out to just be the result of us fishing
Mature fish are found deep not because of age, climate, or prey, but because of us.
Diana Gitig
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Glyphosate is safe, but some scientists still question how we regulate it
We regulate based on human safety, but many of our chemicals have wider impacts.
Diana Gitig
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An evolutionary adaptation that doesn’t directly rely on new mutations
Blind cave fish harnessed an epigenetic system to shut down eye development.
Diana Gitig
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Plants repeatedly got rid of their ability to obtain their own nitrogen
Nitrogen fixation seems to involve a painful tradeoff.
Diana Gitig
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136
Researchers identify a protein that viruses use as gateway into cells
If we can block this interaction, we’d block virus infections.
Diana Gitig
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75
AI trained to navigate develops brain-like location tracking
Just like mammals, artificial networks evolve cells that tell them where they are.
Diana Gitig
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Human brain cells can make complex structures in a dish—is this a problem?
Now’s the time to start thinking about the ethics of building neural tissues.
Diana Gitig
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157
We’ve found the cells norovirus targets—we just don’t know what they do
Targeting a small population of cells seems to be enough for some big effects.
Diana Gitig
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Inflammation is bad, including for those in the womb
Researchers track maternal inflammation, then follow their babies for two years.
Diana Gitig
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Frogs make a comeback, beat fungus
Amphibians may be evolving resistance to a disease that’s been wiping them out.
Diana Gitig
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Scientists try to study bacterial membranes, end up killing bacteria
Oops. I mean – yay!!
Diana Gitig
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Herring could actually benefit from ocean acidification
The effect is indirect; the increase in CO2 increases herring’s food supply.
Diana Gitig
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Although they can’t tell us about it, infants can reason
Babies’ pupils dilate when they have to make an inference—just like millennials.
Diana Gitig
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Part of the Great Barrier Reef exposed to more CO₂; results are grim
Results from the ocean mimic those from the lab: We’re screwed.
Diana Gitig
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Planting GMOs kills so many bugs that it helps non-GMO crops
Bt corn protects neighboring peppers and green beans, cuts pesticide use.
Diana Gitig
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He’s not just saying he feels her pain—he really is
When couples hold hands and one is in pain, their brain waves synchronize.
Diana Gitig
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Gut bacteria key to the vampire bat’s ability to survive on blood
The vampire bat’s genome only explains part of its blood-eating capabilities.
Diana Gitig
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Chinese ban on small coal-burning ovens took 15 years
Delay in enforcement cost 15 years and 2,000 cases of lung cancer.
Diana Gitig
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Oxygen ions may be an easy-to-track sign of life on exoplanets
Depending, of course, on whether anything but life can generate a lot of oxygen.
Diana Gitig
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