This Month in 2013

Building an approach to quantify chinks in a protein's armor.

The ability to detect experimental effects is undermined in studies that lack power.

Software can be like music, but an evaluation of software tools can involve some hard-to-play chords.

Sensors show calcium movement in tiny, cellular antennae.

The P value reported by tests is a probabilistic significance, not a biological one.

The meaning of error bars is often misinterpreted, as is the statistical significance of their overlap.

Better surveys of microbial friends and foes.

Statistics does not tell us whether we are right. It tells us the chances of being wrong.

RNA sensors lend proteins both specific and bright signals.

Relate your data to the world around them using the age-old custom of telling a story.

Proteins are sociable and interact with other proteins. A new web resource helps to score experimental data about these relations.

Inspired by his son, an electrical engineer brings microchip technology and portability to biology.

Visually organize complex data by mapping them onto familiar representations of biological systems.

Choose distinct symbols that overlap without ambiguity and communicate relationships in data.

New features are added to a neuron-painting toolbox that could contribute to the recently announced US brain-mapping initiative.

Engineering a protein from a little-known marine invertebrate brings labs a bright, neon green sheen.

Translate the principles of effective writing to the process of figure design.

A large-scale comparative study of techniques to localize proteins leads to paths through cells and forests.

Figure labels require the same consistency and alignment in their layout as text.

Make navigational elements distinct and unobtrusive to maintain visual priority of data.