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The past year has seen a beleaguered Food and Drug Administration publicly denounced as unable to protect the US public. As the political pressure mounts, Meredith Wadman joins the agency's hunt for a remedy to its ills.
Why do current safety systems sometimes fail to notice that approved drugs are causing serious adverse effects? And can surveillance methods be improved? Simon Frantz investigates.
How do DNA-repair enzymes find aberrant nucleotides among the myriad of normal ones? One enzyme has been caught in the act of checking for damage, providing clues to its quality-control process.
Two-dimensional spectroscopy can now be done using visible light. This allows the electronic couplings between energy levels to be measured directly and sheds new light on how molecules function in photosynthesis.
According to a proposal put forward many years ago, sexual reproduction makes natural selection more effective because it increases genetic variation. Experiments now verify that idea — at least in yeast.
The huge earthquake of 26 December 2004 and ensuing tsunami were caused by a submarine rupture running from offshore Aceh, Indonesia, to the Andaman Islands. A clearer picture of events is starting to emerge.
Cells must pass the correct number of chromosomes to their progeny through the complex ballet of cell division. An unusual conformation-sensitive switch seems to maintain accurate chromosome segregation.
The abundance of different isotopes of oxygen provides clues to the origin of matter in the Solar System. Hence the importance of studies of oxygen atoms from the Sun trapped in metal grains on the Moon.
Like Jekyll to Hyde, mitochondria can change from acting as the cell's powerhouses to become merciless killers. Mice lacking this mechanism develop normally, and their hearts are resistant to pathological damage.
