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Prenatal genetic tests can now check for abnormalities in developing fetuses, but there is still no regulatory framework for them in the United States.
A trial drug encourages cells to ignore the signs that stop them making faulty proteins. Sound dangerous? Claire Ainsworth discovers that it could be a cure for genetic disease.
Next June, a $1.4-billion neutron-scattering facility will come online in the United States. Karen Fox finds out whether this machine really can breathe fresh life into the ageing Tennessee lab that is its home.
A new technique could allow doctors to spot hundreds of potential genetic problems in unborn babies. But is it too soon to put it to use? Erika Check finds out.
Einstein challenged physics to describe “the real factual situation”. But an understanding of the very concepts that he criticized a century ago may provide the best clues yet about reality ‘out there’.
Domestication and selective breeding have transformed wolves into the diversity of dogs we see today. The sequence of the genome of one breed adds to our understanding of mammalian biology and genome evolution.
Laboratory experiments point to a mechanism by which ice forms from supercooled water with surprising alacrity. Such a mechanism may help to explain ice formation in the atmosphere under certain conditions.
The Wnt signalling pathway is a major route by which the cell conveys information from its exterior to the nucleus. A gap in the sequence of signalling proteins has now been filled.
Storing single photons in atomic memories, and releasing them at a later time, is a required step on the way to quantum repeaters and long-distance quantum cryptography networks. This step has now been taken.
The capacity of tumours to spread to other organs is one of their most dangerous attributes. A study of how cancer cells settle in new places shows that they send out envoys to prepare the ground for them.
The first analyses of data sent by the Huygens probe from Saturn's largest moon Titan are flooding in. They paint a picture of a ‘Peter Pan’ world — potentially like Earth, but with its development frozen at an early stage.
