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The US space agency is facing a crisis that neither it nor its political stakeholders seem willing to tackle. Something big has to give, and it shouldn't be science.
Pakistan's traditional ways have blocked many women's careers in science. But, as Ehsan Masood discovers, women are now fighting for their rights, both in life and in research.
Mexican scientists now have the skills and technology to study their backlog of ancient bones. As this treasure trove begins to yield its secrets, Rex Dalton finds local scientists hoping to unravel the mysteries of the earliest settlers of America.
Astronomers are going to extraordinary lengths in the quest to tot up the ‘ordinary’ matter in the Universe. The latest initiative has probed hot gas in intergalactic space by means of an X-ray lighthouse.
How can different species evolve different physical features despite using similar molecular toolkits? Studies of wing colour development in fruitflies point to specific changes in a gene's regulatory region.
When a DNA molecule breaks, its complementary copy can be used as a template for repair. A familiar protein complex is recruited to the damaged site, keeping it close to the undamaged copy.
Top-down, bottom-up; RNA-based, lipid-based; theory, experiment — there are many different ways of investigating what constitutes a ‘minimal cell’. Progress requires finding common themes between them.
There is growing evidence that the usual approach to modelling chemical events at surfaces is incomplete — an important concern in studies of the many catalytic processes that involve surface reactions.
The respiratory systems of animals must guarantee an efficient oxygen supply. But it seems that, in some insects, they have evolved to restrict the flow of oxygen too.
Tiny RNA molecules called microRNAs are important in development, and are thought to function by causing the degradation of matching messenger RNAs. That may not be their only mode of action, however.
