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The public must be told that experiments on primates remain essential for progress in some areas of biomedicine. But the scientists involved should also lead the way in pressing for improvements in animal welfare.
China produces fine scientists, but too many go abroad for training and do not return. David Cyranoski visits a programme that aims to give scientific high-fliers a reason to stay put.
When can invasive experiments on monkeys or apes be justified? And what would be the consequences for biomedical research if they were to cease? Sally Goodman and Erika Check pose some difficult questions.
Preventing the international spread of disease is not a matter of charity from rich countries to poor. It is a global, collective enterprise from which all countries benefit.
The planets were probably created by collisions between smaller rocky bodies over many millions of years. The identification of a recently formed asteroid family will tell us much about the dynamics of these collisions.
One explanation for the especially rich diversity of trees in the tropics is that a process called 'density-dependent mortality' operates there. It turns out, however, that this process occurs in temperate forests too.
The build-up of cholesterol in the walls of arteries is a hallmark of atherosclerosis. Work with transgenic mice has revealed a specific interaction through which cholesterol deposition is initiated.
The invention of semiconductor transistors in the 1940s revolutionized electronic circuitry. In the new world of 'nanoelectronics', a transistor whose active component is a single atom has now been demonstrated.
Cells often need to move up a concentration gradient of an attractive chemical. The types of lipids in the cell membranes also seem to form a gradient, from front to back of the cell. New work has identified two enzymes that may shape this lipid imbalance.
Molecular chaperones come in different forms, but all have a similar task: to keep other proteins in shape. A newly identified chaperone seems to be specific to haemoglobin, preventing precipitation.
Daedalus is working on a 'linear gunpowder', in which carbon fibres, sulphur fibres and potassium nitrate whisker crystals are interwoven. Linear gunpowder will eject an oriented gas and should give added thrust to rockets.
