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Two years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the promised reorientation of US national research priorities proceeds without much direction or conviction.
Science is moving too fast for the legal system to keep up. But lawyers and scientists have a solution — a body that would help courts tackle cases involving the latest research. Nicola Nosengo investigates.
Lithium has been used to treat manic depression for decades, and may help combat other brain disorders. So how come no one knows for sure why it works? Helen R. Pilcher reports.
Yvon Le Maho studies how animals adapt to the environment, and is especially fond of penguins. He is director of the CNRS Centre d'Ecologie et Physiologie Energétiques in Strasbourg, France.
Random collisions between asteroids would seem to cause their spin axes to be tilted in all directions. Surprisingly, the gentle recoil force of thermal re-radiation may bring their spin axes into alignment.
Reducing food intake increases lifespan in many species. A small molecule that occurs naturally in plants seems to mimic the beneficial effects of caloric restriction and extend longevity in yeast.
A single vortex of flux, formed inside a superconducting Josephson junction, has been detected undergoing quantum tunnelling — a feature that could be developed into a quantum bit.
When females mate with several males, paternity may be uncertain. But male savannah baboons are seldom confused: when intervening in fights between youngsters, they generally support their own offspring.
The Solar System has a largely uniform isotopic composition but with tantalizing small variations. Geochemists are trying to ascertain the mechanisms and types of stars that produced this state of affairs.
The mechanism by which the TIMP-2 protein inhibits blood-vessel formation has been uncovered — and it is not as expected. The finding has implications for treating a cancer by cutting off its blood supply.
Advanced software and services aimed at the non-bioinformatician are making it easier to ride the tidal-wave of genomics and proteomics data. Steve Buckingham reports.
Each year, some scientists switch careers to become consultants. But can they weather the current economic storm? Tobias Kramer and Amy Wilson investigate.