WEB FOCUSES
- Latest biological sciences
- Latest earth and environment
- Latest physical sciences
- Latest science and politics
- Latest science, art and culture
Latest biological sciences
Symbiosis
Life depends on relationships. The enormous technological progress achieved in recent years has made it possible to investigate the 'simple' one-on-one interactions between two species as well as defining the associations between complex microbial communities and humans. These efforts have provided insights reaching from the identification of the participating partners to defining beneficial molecular and cellular interactions. This web focus both reflects the broad scope of symbiosis research and demonstrates how similar the underlying concepts are, independent of the system investigated. It is certainly a fascinating and fast-moving field, as we hope is portrayed in this selection of papers.
Reaching for regenerative medicine
One could argue that regenerative medicine is more theory than practice: only a handful of therapies such as skin grafts and heart transplants are happening today. However, research on regeneration of mammalian tissues and organs has intensified over the past decade, with the discovery of new ways to isolate and even create stem cells that can restore function, at least in rodents. Now the challenge—a formidable one—is learning what is necessary to make it work in patients. In this web focus, we have brought together content from Nature and Nature Reports Stem Cells to highlight where we are with the basic science, and the challenge of making medicine from stem cells, whether derived from adult tissue, reprogrammed cultured cells or embryos.
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Latest earth and environment
EPICA Dome C: Greenhouse gases over eight glacial cycles -
Ice cores are invaluable archives of past environmental conditions on Earth. In 1996, the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) set out to provide the longest ice-core climate record yet, by drilling a core from 3,270 m thick ice at a site known as Dome C in East Antarctica. The team's findings to date, including a complete Antarctic climate record over the past 800,000 years and atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide records from 650,000 years ago to the present, have significantly advanced our understanding of the Earth's climate over the past eight glacial cycles. Here Nature presents the latest results, the complete records of atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide over the past 800,000 years, along with some of the previous Dome C ice-core papers and a collection of related articles.
Energy for a cool planet
The world, especially the developing world, needs new sources of energy. What it doesn′t need is any more carbon dioxide, the principal cause of man-made climate change. Reconciling those two requirements is the great technological challenge of our time. In this web focus, Nature has collected a suite of feature articles and associated material focused on new ‘clean energy’ technologies that seek to address this challenge. From mainstream possibilities like the expansion of nuclear power, to more offbeat subjects such as microbial fuel cells, this Nature web focus provides a compelling overview of the energy landscape.
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Latest physical sciences
Venus Express -
Venus Express is the first mission to Venus in 15 years. It was built by the European Space Agency, launched from Baikonur on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher on 9 November 2005. It arrived at Venus on 11 April 2006 and is in a polar orbit, with a period of ~24 hours. Since arrival its suite of instruments have been collecting data on the atmosphere and magnetosphere. Eight Letters describe the results obtained so far, while a Progress paper by Svedhem et al. gives an overview of the mission.
Future of Computing -
In the last two decades advances in computing technology, from processing speed to network capacity and the internet, have revolutionized the way scientists work and many recent scientific advances would not have been possible without a parallel increase in computing power – but with revolutionary technologies such as the quantum computer edging towards reality, how long will the current synergy between computing and science last?
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Latest science and politics
Innovation
What's both radical and incremental? Aimless and goal-oriented? Process and product? Innovation — now the subject of a monthly series of Nature Commentaries. Expert authors from business, economics, law, policy and research look to define innovation and explore how it arises and how it can be managed, encouraged and facilitated. The commentaries reveal that the idea of a single innovator or inventor is fading, and probe how innovation is increasingly the product of an entire ecology which includes both basic and applied research but also the venture capital system and external motivating forces coming together in the right mix.
Russian Science
On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. Fifty years on, Nature explores the current state of Russian science and celebrates the beginning of the space age with a special package of news and comment. Three News Features report the experiences of those who have lived and worked in Russia, and on the modernization of the 300-year-old Russian Academy of Sciences. A Commentary from former Russian science minister Boris Saltykov sets out the opportunities for innovation today. Alexei Kojevnikov's Essay argues that Sputnik spawned the modern international research community. William Burrows reviews Matthew Brzezinski's book Red Moon Rising about how the space race grew out of Cold War tensions, Giovanni Bignami reflects on two new related documentaries and Martin Kemp analyses the immortality of space dog Laika.
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Latest science, art and culture
Horizons
'Horizons' articles present experts' visions of the foreseeable future of a research theme. The articles are commissioned by Nature's editors, and usually published without peer review, given Nature's intention of capturing a respected individual perspective. The articles are intended to anticipate the future, but also to influence it.
Science and Music
This weekly series explores what the latest scientific research has to say about music – what it is, why we make it, how we make it, why we listen to it and how it is changing. Nine opinion pieces from leading world experts working at the interface between science and music discuss how the latest developments in physics, psychology, materials science, information science, neuroscience and anthropology might give us new answers to these ancient questions.