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Negotiations over a sensitive scientific publication that could be misused by bioterrorists highlight trouble ahead unless appropriate guidelines are developed.
British prime minister Tony Blair hopes to make significant progress on climate change at the upcoming G8 summit. The United States is standing in his way, but his efforts may at least benefit climate research.
Western conservation biologists working in Myanmar have been accused of colluding with a brutal military regime — charges they deny. Duncan Graham-Rowe reports from this pariah state.
Do US high schools dedicated to science generate future academics or burnt-out whiz kids? Kendall Powell catches up with some of the first pupils to graduate from ‘nerd school’.
Treatments that use stem cells to replace damaged or diseased tissues are thought to lie many years away. But the cells might find other clinical applications in the near future, says Catherine Zandonella.
The US biotechnology industry's lobby shop is at last making its mark. Its incoming president may have taken some flak for quitting Congress but, as Meredith Wadman discovers, he's relishing the change.
Useful science or unregulated commercial whaling? Nicholas J. Gales, Toshio Kasuya, Phillip J. Clapham and Robert L. Brownell Jr consider the scientific merits of Japan's whaling activities.
The trend towards ever smaller electronic instruments had left refrigerators out in the cold. Now a practical, compact device uses quantum mechanical tunnelling to cool close to absolute zero.
At least half the human genome consists of mobile elements, such as LINEs, some of which can jump around the genome. These elements have been crucial in genome evolution, but they may also contribute to human diversity.
The mosquito-killing capabilities of fungi can in principle be deployed in the fight against malaria. But long experience of unfulfilled hopes in this complex arena shows the need to proceed cautiously.
Models of the microscopic contact area between two surfaces work surprisingly well, or fail completely, depending on the aspects of adhesion or friction being investigated. A simulation now shows how the details matter.
A cell's contents are organized by a scaffolding of microtubules. These long, thin polymers continuously grow and shrink, and the structures of two forms of the constituent protein provide clues to how this occurs.
Gaps in nuclear levels, which cause nuclei with ‘magic’ numbers of protons or neutrons to be especially stable, seem to be different for nuclei with an excess of neutrons. But are all magic numbers aberrant in exotic species?
Producing muscle as an embryo, and making or repairing it as an adult, could be considered to be quite different processes. But it seems that cells that share a common origin carry out both of these tasks.
During cell division, intricate cellular machinery separates duplicated DNA into daughter cells. Unexpectedly, the assembly of this crucial apparatus seems to rely on components other than proteins and DNA.
MicroRNAs that tweak gene expression, single nucleotide polymorphisms in population genetics, and individual genome sequencing: Caitlin Smith takes a look at three fast-moving areas in genomics.
