Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Atomic force microscopes have revolutionized the study of materials, but probing watery biological systems has proved more difficult. Jenny Hogan asks whether a fix is at hand.
Last autumn's deadly earthquake caught Pakistan's government and scientific community off guard. Now a handful of officials and academics are struggling to bring the country up to code. Geoff Brumfiel reports from the scene.
Some say that life began in fire. Hauke Trinks thinks it began in ice, and is bent on taking the hard route to prove it. Quirin Schiermeier tells the Arctic adventurer's tale.
Good surveillance is key to responding to a bird flu pandemic. Jean-Paul Chretien, David L. Blazes and their colleagues propose a new network of labs modelled on existing military facilities.
We know the basic events of 26 December 2004: a giant earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean generated a devastating tsunami. But geoscientists are still learning about processes initiated during the earthquake.
In certain premature-ageing syndromes, the architecture of the cell nucleus is abnormal. An animal model shows similar malformations during normal ageing, corroborating the idea that genome instability underlies ageing.
Silicon nanowires could form the building-blocks of future electronic devices, but under ultra-clean conditions, regulating their growth is difficult. Is the strictly controlled environment the problem?
Ecologists continue to wrestle with a central question in biodiversity studies — the prediction of species' distributions in various environments. A merger of different theories is the long-term prospect.
Individual packets of light energy, known as optical solitons, have long been the darlings of communications engineers. Finally, their electrical siblings are getting a look in — and could become the new favourites.
How chains of proteins link transmembrane cell–cell adhesion molecules to the cell's inner scaffold was standard textbook material. But recent research challenges the accepted model, opening a new chapter in the field.
An innovative approach to the isotopic labelling of proteins places the determination of the structures of larger proteins — particularly those in solution — within reach, while improving the accuracy of the method.
PhD students, postdocs and even senior scientists are taking continuing-education courses to improve their scientific 'hard skills' or branch out beyond the lab. Robert Rentzsch had a look around to see what's on offer.
