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A new awareness of environmental problems is changing the landscape for scientists. In the United States, it is creating jobs for a diverse range of specialists in some unexpected areas. Potter Wickware reports.
As ecologists attempt to get to grips with the Kyoto Protocol, many European climate scientists are concerned that there are insufficient resources available to understand the science behind the environment. Paul Smaglik reports.
It may have profited from the increased interest in environmental issues, but ecology in Japan is still struggling to make ends meet. Robert Triendl crosses the divide within the discipline.
The debate in the United States on human cloning took significant steps forward last week. But whether President Bush's ethics panel will serve the public well remains to be seen.
A limited telephone network and low levels of literacy make it difficult to get information technology into India's rural areas. But as K. S. Jayaraman finds out, the country's engineers have developed some innovative solutions.
Pulses of energy called planetary waves traverse the globe, protecting the Arctic ozone layer and influencing weather and climate. Atmospheric scientists are now realizing just how important they are, says Larry O'Hanlon.
The crystal structure of the final component of the three-part anthrax toxin shows how it disables a host signalling molecule, while simultaneously using that molecule to stimulate its own activity.
Cosmologists believe the Universe will expand forever, but our powers to observe it will not accelerate at the same rate. What does this mean for the future of astronomy?
The discovery in tobacco and celery of components of the C4 type of photosynthesis presents a host of intriguing questions about when and how this pathway evolved in higher plants.
The shaky movements of people with Huntington's disease are caused by death of a specific group of nerve cells. One culprit — the mutant huntingtin protein — is well known. Another has now been discovered.
The mystery of how electrons in a high-temperature superconductor flow without resistance grows deeper. New pictures at the atomic scale reveal two electronic phases that — like oil and vinegar — do not easily mix.
Dissolved nitrogen is usually thought to be transported from land to sea in inorganic form. But the predominance of organic nitrogen in streams in temperate South America suggests that this view needs a rethink.
After years of failure, a protein involved in flipping certain oligosaccharide molecules into the endoplasmic reticulum — one of the cellular sites where proteins are modified with sugars — has been tracked down.
Most plastic films have long polymer molecules that lie in the plane of the film. A film with its molecules oriented perpendicular to the plane would be highly porous making it suitable for some novel applications.
