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Multidisciplinary approaches pave the way towards new frontiers in understanding complex human behaviour and intractable diseases. Diane Gershon assesses the US field.
America may be thinking big, but in Europe the rise of neuroscience is finding favour in a more localized manner. Helen Gavaghan taps into the continental flavour of European interdisciplinary research.
Italy's principal funding agency has missed an opportunity to enhance the prestige of its institutes. In appointing its first crop of new directors, it has conspicuously avoided some candidates of the highest calibre.
In the early 1990s, a chance finding in a Japanese laboratory introduced the world to carbon nanotubes. Today, interest in the tubes is still growing. Philip Ball reports on a decade of discovery.
How do we perceive distance using only one eye? A neat variation on existing methods of measuring visually perceived distance highlights the importance of 'angular declination', a cue long thought to be involved.
You would not expect water to enter a hydrophobic carbon nanotube. But computer simulations show that it can, and studying the process should provide clues about the behaviour of biological pores.
There is no known cure for Alzheimer's disease. But new hope (for mice at least) comes from an in-depth investigation of a class of drugs used to treat inflammatory diseases.
Antibiotic development is the first priority in responding to terrorist use of anthrax. But structural studies offer new leads in the hunt for more effective anti-toxin treatments.
Turning wood into paper uses lots of chemicals, whose waste products are a serious environmental concern. A new approach to the problem conjures up some clever chemistry but shows that there are no quick fixes.
All blood vessels originate from the same precursor cells in early embryos. So how do those precursors decide whether to contribute to arteries or veins? Studies of zebrafish bring us closer to the answer.
Readers obsessed with cleanliness, or even those who loathe housework, might welcome the invention of a scaled-down vacuum cleaner that runs continuously and independently.
