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Raw data are useful for researchers wishing to replicate the results of an experiment. Care needs to be taken when, as with brain-imaging measurements, such data can be misused or misinterpreted.
Fifty of the world’s leading researchers are being tempted to work in the UK with an offer of a combined salary top-up and discretionary research grant worth up to £100,000.
The imminent auction of a fossilized gliding reptile that lived 200 million years ago has refuelled concerns among palaeontologists about the impact of private collectors, prepared to pay high prices for prize specimens, on their scientific work
Concerns are being raised about initial efforts to deal with the first outbreak on the American Pacific Coast of an ecologically damaging marine alga which has already reeked havoc in the Mediterranean Sea.
Nuclear scientists and engineers are urging France to compete with Japan and Canada to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
Astronomers criticising companies that sell people the ‘right’ to name stars have been threatened with defamation lawsuits by the Illinois-based International Star Registry.
A new joint Genome Research Centre between the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg is to be created - the successful result of a year of lobbying by senior life scientists.
Passive, seafloor observatories are likely to replace the traditional expeditions aboard research vessels as the dominant source of oceanographic data in the not-too-distant future, say leading researchers.
The functioning of terrestrial ecosystems seems to depend heavily on soil biodiversity. But what controls this diversity, and how will it fare in the global greenhouse? Jon Copley digs for some answers.
Natural ecosystems are devilishly difficult to study. Hence the resort to laboratory simulations, involving short-lived organisms like bacteria, to tackle the question of why some ecosystems support more species than others.
Protein crystallization is more an art than a science, yet it is vital for determining protein structure. A study of the protein apoferritin provides the first observations of the earliest stages of crystallization, known as nucleation.
Progress in understanding Alzheimer's disease comes with a report that Alzheimer's like pathology in mice can be halted by antibodies that recognize the amyloid-b peptide, found in the brain plaques characteristic of the human disease. The antibodies bind to the plaques and trigger their removal.
DNA microarrays have been used to analyse the gene-expression profiles of a variety of cancers. Now this technique has revealed several genes that are upregulated specifically in metastatic melanomas compared with their non-metastatic counterparts. One of these genes, RhoC, can induce metastasis all by itself.
High-temperature superconductors are probably not just normal superconductors with a higher superconducting-transition temperature, Tc. How different they are is confirmed by a study that finds superconducting vortices at temperatures above Tc.
According to the 'iron hypothesis', the availability of iron as a nutrient is the main control on phytoplankton growth in the oceans, and so determines how much CO2 is drawn down from the atmosphere. The results of a study of sediment cores from the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean cast doubt on this view.
The genome sequence of the bug that causes cholera,Vibrio cholerae , is now published. The sequence will form a basis for studies of the evolution and pathogenicity of this bacterium, and may also aid in the development of new vaccines and medicines.
Temperature has a direct effect on the dynamics of the Earth's interior, but it is not easy to measure temperatures at great depths. An indirect way to study the Earth's temperature is through seismology, as shown by this study of seismic tomography.
This week's idea centres on the reactive power of molten sodium carbonate. The plan is to apply that power not only to rubbish disposal but to awkward or low-grade natural fuel sources. The end products will be fuel gas, and glass bricks that will be both light and insulating.
