Nature Insights and Web Focuses page
Insights
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Vol. 442, No. 7101 (27 July 2006)
Supported by Agilent Technologies
The ability to perform experiments on small scales using miniaturized (lab-on-a-chip) devices has many benefits, and highly integrated and compact labs on chips with exciting functionality have been developed despite the engineering challenges involved. This Insight highlights recent advances in the application of microfluidic-chip-based technologies such as chemical synthesis, the study of cellular metabolism and medical diagnostics. 
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Vol. 437, No. 7059 (29 September 2005)
Produced with support from Unilever
The importance of surfaces and interfaces cannot be overstated, with their reach extending from the hardware of the digital age to the processes of life. The past half-century has seen the development of a varied toolkit for characterizing them which is providing a powerful platform for scientific research and manufacturing technology. In this Insight, Nature brings together literature demonstrating that the investigation of surfaces and interfaces has moved to the forefront of an increasing number of fascinating fundamental scientific enquiries. 
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Vol. 432, No. 7019 (16 December 2004)
Produced with support from Aventis
"Space", as Douglas Adams famously said, "is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." Change 'space' to 'chemical space', and his statement has similar resonance: the total number of possible small organic molecules that populate 'chemical space' has been estimated to exceed 1060 - an amount so vast when compared to the number of such molecules we have made, or indeed could ever hope to make, that it might as well be infinite. So, it is not surprising that our exploration of chemical space has so far been extremely limited. 
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Vol. 426, No. 6968 (18/25 December 2003)
Produced with support from Aventis
At school it all sounded so simple - transcription turns DNA into RNA, and translation of RNA gives you protein. But the often forgotten third step in this process, the folding of the translated linear strand of amino acids into a fully functional three-dimensional protein, is one of the most complex challenges facing the cellular protein factory. 
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Vol. 414, No. 6861 (15 November 2001)
Produced with support from the Materials Research Society
Limited energy resources and increasing environmental pollution are driving the development of flexible technological solutions that involve alternative means of energy supply and storage. This Insight illustrates how the search for cleaner, cheaper, smaller and more efficient energy technologies has been driven by developments in materials science and engineering. 
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Vol. 409, No. 6817 (11 January 2001)
Produced with support from Novozymes A/S
Enzyme biocatalysts carry out the chemistry of life with almost unerring specificity and high catalytic efficiency. This Insight surveys the vast diversity of enzymes at the chemist's disposal, how enzymes can become practical tools for the organic chemist, the development of new functions in nonaqueous solvents, techniques for 'breeding' new enzymes, and the successes and challenges of using biocatalysts on a commercial scale.
Web Focuses
- The development of new antimicrobial drugs is urgently needed in the battle against infectious diseases. The discovery of a new antimicrobial - platensimycin - represents a previously unknown class of antibiotics. This Nature web focus features the latest on this discovery and includes a News & Views article, and specially selected papers on antibiotic function, resistance and development.
- Proteins that contain transition metals are involved in a wide range of biologically-important processes, including natural product and cofactor biosynthesis, histone demethylation, and methane oxidation. To highlight this exciting field, this Nature web focus presents a selection of recently published papers and an archive that explore the structures, mechanisms, and biological activities of several unusual metalloproteins.
- Ion channels allow the movement of ions across cell membranes, and therefore fundamental physiological processes such as muscle contraction. In 1998, we saw for the first time what an ion channel actually looks like in a paper describing the crystal structure of a potassium channel. Now we have an array of ion channel structures, which we exemplify in this regularly updated collection of papers that illustrate the structural revolution that the field is currently experiencing.