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California's stem-cell initiative has finally handed out its first research grants. But will all the money actually move the field forward? Erika Check reports.
Does anybody care about NASA? Most in Congress do only if there is a research centre in their district. David Goldston explains why members never step up to the plate to set priorities.
A Canadian company says it is the first to bring a quantum computer to market but, as Geoff Brumfiel reports, not everyone is buying into the approach.
Updating the tree of life needs both the skills of evolutionary biologists and the data from genome-crunchers — the two ignore each other at their peril. John Whitfield reports.
For some, species are simply the things you save; but for taxonomists, the concept is much more complex. Emma Marris asks whether Linnaeus's legacy is cut out for conservation.
Professional taxonomists often bristle at non-professionals who name new species without going through peer review. But are amateur naturalists really bad for science? Brendan Borrell reports.
Although Linnaeus is best known for his botany and taxonomy, he was also an anatomist — and a keeper of pets. Henry Nicholls tells the story of Sjupp the raccoon.
As we celebrate the visionary genius of Carl Linnaeus, it is time to analyse how professional taxonomy interfaces with the rest of biology and beyond. Where next for Linnaeus's heirs, asks H. C. J. Godfray?
Keeping track of new species names is a growing challenge for modern taxonomists. Sandra Knapp, Andrew Polaszek and Mark Watson make the case for electronic publication of scientific names.
A shake-up of current thinking about the evolution of the angiosperms — the flowering plants — is a consequence of the relocation of a hitherto obscure branch on the angiosperm evolutionary tree.
The way in which protons are transferred between acids and bases has been known in general terms for decades. But the details of the process are complex, and only now is the full proton itinerary becoming clear.
The first 'collisional family' has been spotted among objects in the Kuiper belt, which lies on the outskirts of the Solar System. The identification could provide useful constraints on the outer Solar System's history.
A protein called 14-3-3σ inhibits the cell cycle and may act as a tumour suppressor. It now turns out that it is also involved in regulating protein synthesis from messenger RNA during cell division.
Trapped by mirrors, a photon can be monitored from birth to death by a stream of passing atoms. The technique could also be used to entangle the quantum states of many atoms — a possible boon for quantum computing.
What is the maximum number of covalent chemical bonds that two atoms can share? Six, according to the latest theoretical study — at least where just two atoms of the same element are concerned.
The evolution of the three tiny bones for the mammalian middle ear from components of the reptilian lower jaw is seen clearly in this primitive fossil mammal, in which the middle-ear bones remain connected to the lower jaw by Meckel's cartilage, a transition associated with a corresponding remodelling of the lumbar region.
This paper reports the discovery of a family of Kuiper belt objects with nearly identical surface properties and orbits as that of 2003 EL61, which is the third-largest Kuiper belt object. The family also appears to be fragments of the ejected ice mantle of 2003 EL61.
An experiment in which a stream of non-absorbing atoms is used to probe microwave photons stored in a superconducting cavity details that sequences of hundreds of atoms, highly correlated in the same state, are interrupted by sudden state switchings. These telegraphic signals record the birth, life and death of individual photons.
Tremor beneath Shikoku, Japan can be explained as a swarm of small, low-frequency earthquakes, each of which occurs as shear faulting on the subduction zone plate interface. This suggests that tremor and slow slip are different manifestations of a single process.
One of two papers that define the region of the posterior signalling centre (PSC) in the Drosophila melanogaster lymph gland that controls maintenance of blood cell precursors. This paper also showed that the PSC is specified early in embryonic development by the homeotic gene Antennapedia.
One of two papers that define the region of the posterior signalling centre in the Drosophila melanogaster lymph gland that controls maintenance of blood cell precursors. This paper also showed that Notch singalling from the PSC controls Collier, the Drosophila orthologue of mammalian early B-cell factor.
A function for 14-3-3σ in regulating the translation of proteins in mitosis is defined. During mitosis, translation normally switches from a 'cap-dependent' to 'cap-independent' mechanism, but cells lacking 14-3-3σ don't make this switch and consequently have difficulties in cell division.
It is demonstrated that polyubiquitination mediated by Ube2g2 (E2) and gp78 (E3) employs a mechanism that involves preassembly of Lys48-linked ubiquitin chains at the catalytic cysteine of Ube2g2. Polyubiquitination of a substrate can be achieved by transferring the preassembled ubiquitin chains from Ube2g2 to a lysine residue in a substrate.