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Scientists should be careful not to exaggerate the usefulness of biological agents as terrorist weapons, and focus their efforts on developing an effective international verification regime.
Broad patents on gene sequences could stifle basic genomics research and competition for pharmaceutical innovations, according to the heads of two of Germany's largest science organisations.
Simmering tensions continue over the economics of internet publication between commercial publishers and those advocating the free availability of scientific data.
The US National Institutes of Health should quadruple its contribution to a scheme that pays for expensive equipment, according to the largest professional body of US life sciences researchers.
President Thabo Mbeki ignored critics of his stance on the relationship between HIV and AIDS when opening the 13th international AIDS conference in Durban last Sunday.
French researchers claim to be the first to have witnessed the Indonesian variety of the coelacanth, but to have lost the original photograph taken of their discovery.
A bill recommending that the Sweden’s myriad research councils be replaced with just four could ease a decade of uncertainty over who should control Swedish science.
An independent panel of leading scientists from both industrialized and developing nations this week endorsed the use of genetically modified (GM) crops to meet the food needs of the world's poor.
If individual molecules can be made to process information, they could be the answer to the computer industry's prayers. Philip Ball examines the field of molecular logic, which is at last recording some significant achievements.
A new mathematical biology is emerging. Building on experimental data from developing organisms, it uses the power of computational methods to explore the properties of real gene networks.
Smaller laser sources could be used in all-optical devices or for secret marking of documents. A special type of microlaser that uses disordered materials to create laser light may provide a simple and cheap option.
There are 'roadblocks' at several points in the signalling pathways that control programmed cell death. When the cell needs to die, these roadblocks must be removed, and a vertebrate protein that removes one such block has now been identified.
What was Earth's atmosphere like at different times in the past? Studies of sulphate-rich rocks, which are found to contain an unusual oxygen-isotope signature derived from chemical interactions in the atmosphere, may provide a new tool to tackle the question.
Statistical analyses of neuronal death rates in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders indicate that a 'one-hit' model of cell death may be common to all of them. In this model, affected neurons are in an abnormal state in which there is a higher chance that a rare catastrophic event will lead to cell death.
A pulsar that has 'escaped' from the supernova remnant where it was born is helping astronomers redefine their understanding of pulsar ages. It appears that many apparently young pulsars are in fact older than they seem.
The list of organisms whose genomes have been sequenced is growing fast. The latest addition comes from a Brazilian consortium: the organism concerned is Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium that attacks citrus trees.
Auroras are spectacular light shows rarely seen outside the polar regions. Users of the world's largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, have created their own artificial aurora by stimulating the lower ionosphere with intense radio waves.
During the development of the vertebrate heart, two 'primordia' form - one on each side of the body - and must then migrate to the centre and find each other. The characterization of a zebrafish gene essential for this process, called miles apart, sheds light on the underlying molecular circuitry.
Daedalus is inventing a new cleaning hose, which launches a beam of ultrasound along with a water jet. The 'Ultrajet' will dislodge dirt with great vigour, and will abolish many tedious cleaning jobs.
