Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
A scientific review, farm-scale trials and extensive public consultations on genetically modified crops should pave the way for greater benefits and choice for consumers — provided that the organic movement abandons self-damaging dogmas.
By analysing masses of data from fossils throughout the world, a group of palaeontologists hopes to address the big questions about the history of life on Earth. Quirin Schiermeier logs on to the Paleobiology Database.
Quantum computers offer a new kind of processing power. Silicon chips are easy to manufacture. Can the advantages of the two approaches be combined? Jenny Hogan reports.
Measurements of high-energy neutron exposure in Hiroshima validate estimates of the amount of radiation that survivors of the atom bomb received. Can we now predict the risks of radiation more reliably?
Climate is greatly influenced by ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. But warming episodes, as glacial conditions turned into interglacials, may have been triggered by events far to the south.
The discovery that a molecular motor of the kinesin family is involved in turning a multicellular green alga inside out might have implications for similar events in animal development.
Diamond could rival silicon as the material of choice for the electronics industry, but has been held back by the difficulty of growing large enough wafers. This problem may now be solved.
Biological traits are buffered against genetic and environmental upset by a process called canalization. New work suggests this may be a general feature of regulatory gene networks, selected to survive gene loss.
Quantum fluctuations at absolute zero may push a system into a different phase or state. The 'quantum critical point' at which this happens in certain materials has now been probed in greater detail.
The mechanism that inserts proteins into the membranes of cellular organelles was thought to be well understood. But studies in yeast reveal that this process is sometimes more complicated than had been suspected.
The completion of the human genome sequence, coupled with analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry, has fuelled interest in proteomics. Diane Gershon reports.
Medicinal chemists have skills that are eagerly snapped up by industry, and an increase in training options is making it easier to gain the necessary experience. Eugene Russo reports.
Medicinal chemists are in demand more than ever before — but the vagaries of the drug-discovery market and a sluggish economy have dampened prospects temporarily, says Eugene Russo.
