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With the death of Francis Crick, biology is mourning one of its deepest thinkers. A work of futurology, published in 1970, reveals the extent of his prescience — and suggests challenges for today's theorists.
CERN, the centre for particle physics in Europe, has been smashing its way through the subatomic world for the past 50 years. Alison Abbott finds out what's in store for the future.
By taking advantage of the cell's carbohydrate metabolism, reactive sugar analogues can be used to tag specific cells, potentially singling them out for imaging studies or drug delivery.
A remarkable set of antimalarial drug candidates has been developed by an international collaboration of scientists, using the age-old Chinese herbal medicine artemisinin as a template.
In high-temperature superconductors, quantized vortex filaments can be twisted up into a DNA-like double helix. An experiment is proposed to test how easily these vortex lines cut through each other.
During cell division everything must happen at the right time, or errors occur. A common cellular control device, protein phosphorylation, is now shown to time the assembly of a key part of the division machinery.
During the last glacial period, climatic variation in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres was evidently linked. Modelling work points to freshwater discharge into the North Atlantic as a driving factor.
An atomic picture of how anthrax toxin binds to its host's cells reveals that the toxin commandeers a host receptor protein and tricks it into helping the toxin enter the cell.
Alexander Rich and Charles F. Stevens, respectively an early collaborator of Crick's and a long-standing colleague at the Salk Institute, describe the life and work of one of the great thinkers of twentieth-century biology.
“It is high time we addressed the widening inequities that characterize our planet today. We need to focus our energies towards achieving basic healthcare for all.” Pascoal Mocumbi, former prime minister of Mozambique
Documentary makers can get as close to the war zones of disease as doctors and researchers — perhaps even closer. Julie Clayton and Declan Butler talk to Kevin Hull about his experiences.
We have the science to make new antimalarials, say Robert Ridley and Yeya Toure, but we need better mechanisms and resources to develop drugs and deliver them.
Chemical biology, using chemical tools to solve biological problems, is awakening interest among students and creating a new breed of researcher, says Tim Chapman.
Malaria: The long road to a healthy Africa. The Naturezeroes in on the major issues in the war on malaria, with a particular focus on Africa. It analyses the current state of affairs, the major scientific and other obstacles in treatment and control, and the promising areas where substantial progress might be made.
