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Research on embryonic stem cells holds huge promise for understanding and treating disease. Many people oppose such research on religious and ethical grounds, but two new methods may bypass some of these objections.
Living terrestrial vegetation emits large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. This unexpected finding, if confirmed, will have an impact on both greenhouse-gas accounting and research into sources of methane.
Wiring up retinal neurons to the correct brain region during development is a feat of precision growth. A novel directional cue repels retinal neuron fibres, acting as a counterbalance to a known attractive signal.
The most accurate way of determining the size of some bodies in the Solar System is to observe them as they pass across the face of a star. In the case of Charon, Pluto's largest satellite, it's been a long wait.
A major player among the phytoplankton can exploit a source of phosphorus previously thought to be unavailable to it. That ability may provide an ecological advantage in nutrient-depleted regions of the open ocean.
Crystallization of ascending magma may affect the style of volcanic activity. Pockets of melt incorporated into crystals provide windows on processes that occur several kilometres below Earth's surface.
Do random environments make for random responses to them? Mathematical models suggest that this is not always the case — adding noise could create synchronous oscillations in cell–cell signalling systems.
