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The world is celebrating the news that the SARS outbreak now seems to be contained. But the epidemic has revealed gaps in our defences against emerging viral diseases and the ever-looming threat of a flu pandemic.
It's less than four months since the World Health Organization issued global warnings about a mysterious and deadly form of pneumonia. Nature's reporters pose key questions about the outbreak, and assess our preparedness to deal with future viral threats.
High-throughput methods of synthesis and analysis are streamlining the search for new catalysts, reducing the timescale from years to days. A new class of polymerization catalysts is the latest discovery.
Even after intensive antiviral treatment, HIV-1 can lurk in reservoirs in the human body and then reappear. The complex pathways by which the virus creates such reservoirs are only now becoming clear.
Last year, for the first time in 14 years, an alignment of stars with Pluto created an opportunity to observe the atmosphere of this most remote of planets. Though tenuous, the atmosphere has, remarkably, expanded.
The role of integrin proteins in the formation of skeletal muscle has been hotly debated, as studies of whole animals and of cultured cells have yielded conflicting results. The controversy may now be resolved.
A sophisticated model of the effects of mutating the retinoblastoma gene reveals a window of opportunity in which cells can be released from the normal control of proliferation, before back-up mechanisms take effect.
Set against certain other oceanographic phenomena in the northwest Atlantic, a class of brief and localized events that occur in the Irminger Sea may seem inconsequential. Not so, however.
Students starting their PhD and postdocs moving into fresh areas of research often find themselves in need of different technical skills. How does everyone get up to speed? Karen Kreeger reports.
