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The United States is a nation of immigrants — and nowhere more so than in the lab. Yet officials of the federal government don't seem to recognize that the country's scientific strength depends in large part on foreign talent.
Immigration controls introduced under the 'war on terror' are restricting the flow of foreign researchers into the United States. With other countries moving in on this pool of talent, will the balance of scientific power shift?
Viewing cancer as a disease of cell differentiation rather than multiplication allows a redefinition of the role of oncogenes and tumour-suppressor genes.
Studies of human tumours and the immune system have revealed that cutting and pasting of proteins can generate new peptide variants. This startling finding has implications for both proteomics and immunity.
Superfluids flow without resistance. It's hard to imagine, but quantum mechanically possible, that solids should do the same at low enough temperatures. Helium-4 might be the first known 'supersolid'.
The initial flowering of animal life on Earth occurred during the Cambrian, some 540–490 million years ago. Fossil embryos from that time can provide clues about the origins of the major animal groups.
Getting to the bottom of events at the boundary between Earth's core and mantle is fiendishly difficult. The latest analysis invokes evidence from an isotope of tungsten to conclude that the two do not interact.
Data on the chimpanzee genome help in detecting differential selection on individual genes, and in judging whether normal microevolutionary processes are sufficient to account for human origins.
