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What causes gas to be drawn in towards black holes, rather than remain in a stable orbit as planets do around the Sun? A laboratory result indicates that something more than just hydrodynamics must be at work.
Levels of dissolved organic carbon in British streams and lakes have risen over the past two decades. It might be a downstream effect of decreased acid rain — but isolating single factors is notoriously difficult.
The reality of a complete Neanderthal genome draws near, as two papers report the sequencing of large amounts of Neanderthal DNA. The results will help to answer some central questions on human evolution.
Molecules often work together in complexes to carry out their functions in the cell. But how do they get together in such a dynamic environment? A structural study follows proteins as they meet their partners.
The latest research seems to imply that all earthquakes are born equal. But combining that insight with earlier, seemingly contradictory, work could help us to tell which tremors grow to become more equal than others.
A new ice-core record from Antarctica provides the best evidence yet of a link between climate in the northern and southern polar regions that operates through changes in ocean circulation.
Faint satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are being discovered that are dimmer than some of the Milky Way's star clusters. This finding poses a fundamental question: what are galaxies?
There is a fundamental quantum limit to heat flow, just as there is to electric current. This limit is independent of what carries the heat, and could also have a role in an unexpected quarter: information theory.
Mitochondria supply cells with energy, but in the process produce potentially damaging oxidants. It seems that a protein required to produce new mitochondria also protects against the resulting oxidative damage.
Isotopes formed by the decay of radioactive nuclei provide evidence of how Earth was shaped in its infancy. But some decay products seem to be hidden — a finding that will revitalize a debate about Earth's interior.
Transplants of photoreceptor cells offer hope for treating retinal disease. But getting the cells to make the right connections with the brain has been problematic. It seems the developmental stage of the cells may be the key.
Intermediate compounds are often produced during a chemical reaction, but they are too short-lived to be easily observed. It seems that a molecular pyramid can persuade them to stick around for a little longer.
Mirrors confine light, and light exerts pressure on mirrors. The combination of these effects can be exploited to cool tiny, flexible mirrors to low temperatures purely through the influence of incident light.
Crystal imperfections known as nitrogen–vacancy defects give some diamonds a characteristic pink colour. Appropriately manipulated, these defects might have rosy prospects as the 'qubits' of a quantum computer.
The Antikythera Mechanism, salvaged 100 years ago from an ancient shipwreck, was long known to be some sort of mechanical calendar. But modern analysis is only now revealing just how sophisticated it was.
Data on changes in water storage in the Congo basin show how GRACE, a pair of satellites designed to record variations in Earth's gravitational field, is benefiting the study of the planet's water cycle.
