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The legal quagmire, strain and bad press of misconduct investigations leave many universities tempted to ignore misconduct allegations. But getting an investigation right can reduce the pain and boost an institution's reputation, says Geoff Brumfiel.
Understanding the social and psychological factors behind scientific misconduct will enable bad practice to be minimized, but never eliminated, says Jim Giles.
Nature catches up with some past fraud investigations — and finds that, whether researchers are found to be guilty or innocent, the wounds are slow to heal.
With the shift of power in the US Congress comes an chance to re-engage in the debate over climate change. But the process will not be simple, says our new columnist David Goldston.
Technology companies across the United States are under investigation for manipulating the timing of their bosses’ stock options. Heidi Ledford reports.
Statistics have the power to trip everyone up — including judges and juries. Even when extra care is taken to get the numbers right in court, confusion often reigns. Mark Buchanan reports.
How best to study the effects of genes and environment on US health? In the first of two commentaries, Walter C. Willett and his co-authors argue that investing in existing studies is the most efficient approach.
Innate immune defences are our first line of protection against infection by viruses and are essential in limiting viral disease. But their reaction to the 1918 influenza virus could have been deadly.
The speed record for programming organic transistor memory has been shattered. Work is needed on the stability of the memory storage, but it's a promising step towards some novel technological applications.
The burden of global warming falls most heavily on the developing world. A connection forged between the Indian Ocean climate, Asian monsoons and drought in Indonesia makes for an especially bleak outlook for that nation.
The size and uniformity of polymer molecules makes it difficult to modify them at just one selected site. But a single chemical group can be attached at the end of a polymer if part of the starting material is forfeited.
DNA replication is a necessary prelude to the division of a eukaryotic cell. Initiation of this process requires a complex script, involving many proteins: details of one of the main acts now emerge.
The deepest and clearest maps yet of the Universe's skeleton of dark-matter structure present a picture broadly in concord with favoured models — although puzzling discrepancies remain.
This paper, one of two published that show Sld2 and Sld3 constitute the minimal group of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) targets necessary to promote replication, also finds that the function of G1 CDKs in replication is not just to activate the S-phase CDKs, but also to regulate the Cdc7 kinase regulatory subunit, Dbf4.
Ordinary baryonic particles account for only one-sixth of the total matter in the Universe, the rest being the mysterious 'dark matter'. This paper presents high-fidelity maps of the large-scale distribution of dark matter, resolved in both angle and depth. The results are consistent with predictions of gravitationally induced structure formation.
A new class of hybrid metal-organic materials that exhibit magnetic ordering well above room temperature is presented. Although a precise structural model for these materials has yet to be elucidated, the versatility of their solution-based synthesis route suggests that it should be possible to prepare a wide range of analogous magnets.
The discovery of sH hydrate in a sample from Barkley Canyon marks the first time this hydrate has been found in the natural environment. This complex gas hydrate can trap larger guest molecules than sI or sII hydrate, and is stable at higher temperatures and pressures than sI hydrate, indicating that gas hydrates could be more widely distributed than previously thought.
Neurons in the monkey lateral prefrontal cortex are activated before a large number of individual complex movements, suggesting that they represent an abstract categorization of motor behaviours, as opposed to the individual sequences themselves. Combined with previous work, this suggests that abstract grouping may be a general property of the prefrontal cortex, perhaps facilitating complex behaviour.
Toxoplasma gondii causes intracellular infections with disease severity that varies depending on the pathogen strain. A potential mechanism has now been elucidated, whereby the presence of a putative kinase in certain strains results in the activation of distinct host signalling pathways.
This paper, one of two published that show Sld2 and Sld3 constitute the minimal group of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) targets necessary to promote replication, also finds that the function of G1 CDKs in replication is not just to activate the S-phase CDKs, but also to regulate the Cdc7 kinase regulatory subunit, Dbf4.
Unlike their US counterparts, European scientists can be forced to retire while they're still productive. But some in Germany are finding ways to go on. Britta Danger reports.