PSYCHOLOGY: Take a Walk on the Blind Side
Jeffrey Ellenbogen (left), Matthew Walker, and their colleagues have been probing a mental quality that lies at the root of human creativity—the mind’s power to draw connections between different areas of knowledge and experience. Many have assumed that this ability is the product of conscious attention and thought. The HMS researchers found that such inferential knowledge may be hatched outside the glare of consciousness, during a period of nonconscious, or offline, processing. The findings appear in the May 1 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

CELL BIOLOGY: Tap Found for Skin Refreshment
The skin’s ability to replace the tissue it sloughs off is controlled by a variety of genes, and now a study identifies the ringmaster of those genes as p63, a close relative of the well-known tumor suppressor p53. HMS cell biologists including (from left) Filipa Pinto, Frank McKeon, and Makoto Senoo report in the May 4 Cell that p63 maintains a steady pool of regenerative epithelial stem cells and that p63-mutant mice lose all stratified epithelial tissues because they simply run out of these cells. The findings underscore the specificity of stem cell regulation in various tissues and add to the understanding of the mechanisms of regeneration.

IMMUNOLOGY: Protein Cuts Early Infection Down to Size
Researchers have found a crucial step in the early warning system that activates the body’s defenses against influenza, hepatitis C, rabies, and related infections. This recently discovered sensing pathway depends in part on skillful signaling by an antiviral molecule that belongs to a large family including a famous HIV-blocking cousin. Led by Michaela Gack (left) in the lab of Jae Jung, the study provides a detailed mechanism for how the host reacts against a viral infection to generate antiviral activity.