Editorials in 2010

A surprising US court decision highlights the need to modernize gene-patenting practices if patients are to benefit from advances in genetic research.

Scientific competition is lacking in Japan, and efforts to increase it are not always best focused.

Much of what people know about science is learned informally. Education policy-makers should take note.

Government influence favouring enhanced openness is rightly diversifying practices in science publishing.

A new generation of clinical trials could yield breakthroughs, but must be handled with care.

Scientists must be more proactive in encouraging good cybersecurity practices.

When Nature or its sister journals receive serious allegations about data or author conduct, they follow a clear procedure to work out whether the published record needs to be revised.

The time is right to revitalize US agricultural research.

Nearly a decade on from the completion of the draft sequence of the human genome, researchers should work with the same intensity and focus to apply the results to health.

A British research council's 'blacklisting' rule is a radical, unpopular but courageous effort to address a crisis in the peer-review system.

Nature's new online commenting facility opens up the entire magazine for discussion.

Lack of US regulation is allowing dubious dietary supplements to be sold as life-enhancing elixirs.

Europe's chief science adviser must be given authority and support to deliver across the board.

Britain's Department of Health must respond to concerns about electronic medical records.

Academics are too often at loggerheads with forensic scientists. A new framework for certification, accreditation and research could help to heal the breach.

Russia's scientific reputation will continue to dwindle unless it embraces international research.

The region's member states must follow through on their political and scientific commitments.