Editorials in 2003

The consortium that is mapping human haplotypes establishes some important principles of access and credit in this issue.

An extensive piece of investigative journalism has highlighted conflicts of interest that cast a pall over the National Institutes of Health. The agency will lose its well-earned public trust if it does not radically increase its transparency.

Celebrating a major relaunch of a Nature journal.

There are rumblings from the White House about a grandiose vision for human space flight, ahead of President Bush's re-election campaign. If precedent is anything to go by, the results will be discomforting for NASA and for science.

Despite its burdensome traditions, the European Commission may be the best hope for funding Europe's basic research.

A United Nations-sponsored meeting in Paris this week will indicate whether humanity has the wherewithal to save our closest cousins in the animal kingdom from extinction.

Untapped scientific potential to the east offers short-term challenges for the European Union, but will strengthen it in the end.

The Royal Society's review of Britain's university funding system should take into account the needs of the regions.

The war on terrorism threatens to overshadow the greatest weapons-proliferation challenge of all — the safe management of nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union.

The high-energy physics community has grand plans to probe deeper into the structure of matter and space-time. The proposal for a multinational linear collider merits strong support.

Scientists are rushing to defend a colleague charged with mishandling samples of the plague bacterium. But they must be careful not to send the message that microbiologists are blasé about the need to protect public health.

Operators of preprint archives and other scientific websites would be well advised to get up to speed on media law.

US researchers studying sexual behaviour, drug use and other controversial topics need protection from political interference.

If you're a morning person, you know how hard it is to function properly late at night. And don't even think of getting a night owl to talk sense at daybreak. Yet our society largely ignores these important differences.

A United Nations scheme launched last week extends unrestricted access to Nature's content within developing countries.

Genetically selected medicine has been much hyped but has significant potential. Regulation and treatment will depend on pharmaceutical companies more readily sharing genetic data.

Accounts of rejected Nobel-winning discoveries highlight the conservatism in science. Despite their historical misjudgements, journal editors can help, but above all, visionaries will need sheer persistence.

The director of the US National Institutes of Health has laid out a plan that would align the world's largest biomedical research agency more closely to the future shape of the life sciences. It deserves political support.

The co-founder of Microsoft has made a mint from a business that many attack, but his efforts in Africa highlight a virtue: a philanthropic understanding of science. The world needs more of it.

The drive for greater public participation in the regulation and politics of technologies is both necessary and irreversible. But proposals to extend it into the selection of publicly funded research contain dangers to science and society.