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A horrible facial cancer is decimating the Tasmanian devil population. But researchers in Australia think they have found a way to save the species. Carina Dennis reports.
Two decades after plans were set in motion for the world's most powerful ground-based telescope, astronomers are bracing themselves for a downgrade to curb escalating costs. Jeff Kanipe reports.
SARS caught China unawares. But the ensuing struggle to characterize and contain the virus has put the country's work on infectious diseases back on target. Apoorva Mandavilli reports.
Soil microbes are notoriously hard to culture, so how can we make the ground yield its secrets? Virginia Gewin finds that genetic sequencing — of samples not species — may be the answer.
For decades, much of the early history of fish evolution was locked away in rocks in China. Rex Dalton tracks down the scientist who brought many of the remains to the surface.
A collapse in ocean currents triggered by global warming could be catastrophic, but only now is the Atlantic circulation being properly monitored. Quirin Schiermeier investigates.
Japan's mission to collect a sample from a distant asteroid looks to have ended in failure. Ichiko Fuyuno investigates how the setback will affect Japan's struggling space programme.
A number of fatal brain diseases are linked to misfolded proteins, an effect researchers are mimicking in the lab. But as they generate new versions of these malformed molecules, could they be creating a monster? Roxanne Khamsi finds out.
A growing number of cosmologists and string theorists suspect the form of our Universe is little more than a coincidence. Are these harmless thought experiments, or a challenge to science itself? Geoff Brumfiel investigates.
The Afar region of Ethiopia is littered with traces of the earliest humans. Rex Dalton gets on the trail with a team of devoted experts who just live for the next find.
