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An increasing emphasis on immunology offers fresh opportunities, but they may be tilted towards applied research and the United States, says Virginia Gewin.
The new Center for Allergy and Immunology aims to give Japanese immunology a fresh perspective — and better working conditions for young scientists, says Robert Triendl.
Too much of malaria research is piecemeal, and the organizations that are supposed to support it are insufficiently effective. Better focusing could yield more funds.
Scientific wagers have a long and colourful history. Are they just harmless fun, or can they help to frame and clarify important issues? Jim Giles surveys the odds.
Hydrologists are gearing up for a second attempt to restore the altered environment of the Grand Canyon, by letting the Colorado River run free. Kendall Powell discovers the lessons learned from the first, fruitless flood.
Old fathers are the source of more genetic mutations in their offspring than either young fathers or mothers of any age. But the apparently most plausible explanation for this effect might not hold.
Potentially huge amounts of water could be carried deep within the Earth by subducting oceanic crust. But it seems that most of that water is released, fuelling volcanism above subduction zones.
Viruses must mutate to survive in the face of attack by their host's immune system. A new model suggests that the viral mutation rate is optimized in an evolutionary trade-off between adaptability and genomic integrity.
A gene has been isolated that controls the number of symbiotic nitrogen-fixing nodules in legumes. Its similarity to a well-characterized regulatory gene in Arabidopsis provides clues about its action.
An HIV-infected patient who was being treated with anti-retroviral drugs in a 'stop–start' protocol has become infected with a second HIV strain, raising questions about both the treatment strategy and vaccine development.
The Per2 gene is a core component of the circadian clock in mammals. It now seems that the mouse Per2 gene is also involved in suppressing tumours, through other genes that affect cell proliferation and death.
Newly developed nanomaterials are proving useful in many fields, but materials that make strong permanent magnets are difficult to devise. Progress has been made using a self-assembled mixture of nanoparticles.
Certain retinal neurons fire specifically in response to stimuli moving in one direction. This apparently occurs when branches of an upstream nerve cell respond asymmetrically, and link asymmetrically to the firing retinal neuron.
