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.
The Pentagon's boldest research agency is in trouble; its unique character is in real danger. DARPA's officials and those who have benefited from its largesse must engage in open debate about the agency's value.
The Italian government is building a series of massive barriers to protect Venice from flooding. But scientists are still arguing over whether the plan will work, says Nicola Nosengo.
DNA microarrays have given geneticists and molecular biologists access to more data than ever before. But do these researchers have the statistical know-how to cope? Claire Tilstone investigates.
Evolving techniques for redesigning organisms have enormous potential but they must be matched with equally sophisticated methods for evaluating their benefits and risks.
How the short legs of juvenile water striders propel the insects across water has perplexed researchers. It now appears that walking on water shares features with the locomotion of birds, insects and fish.
Electronic devices based on carbon nanotubes have a bright future — even more so now that a way has been found to eliminate the 'Schottky barrier' that hinders the injection of electrons into them.
Satellites and numerical models now track the intercontinental transport of airborne particles. Better knowledge of cloud physics will be necessary to gauge the effects on clouds and rainfall patterns.
A key molecular switch, known as the Ha-Ras protein, is active not only at a cell's outer membrane but also on intracellular membranes. This surprising discovery hints at unsuspected complexity in cellular signalling.
Copper oxides become superconductors at much higher temperatures than conventional metals. This transition might involve a state of 'gossamer' superconductivity, and new work shows how.
A protein has been identified that makes spines grow on nerve cells. Unexpectedly, it also turns out to be part of an ion channel that is responsible for transmitting signals between neurons.
A type Ia supernova has no hydrogen around it. But hydrogen gas has now been found in the vicinity of a supernova that otherwise fits the type Ia classification. Might this offer clues to the origin of these objects?
Matter dominates antimatter, at least in our corner of the Universe. Part of the explanation could be an imbalance between the two at the level of fundamental interactions, encapsulated in the phenomenon of CP violation.
