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Volume 472 Issue 7342, 14 April 2011

Nearly a year has passed — the initial explosion occurred on 20 April — since the Deepwater Horizon disaster released millions of barrels of crude oil and methane into the Gulf of Mexico. Mark Schrope reports on the current state of the ecosystem in the region. The biggest impacts are the hardest to spot — deep below the ocean surface and at considerable distances from the original spill. On the cover, crude oil from Deepwater Horizon washes ashore in Orange Beach, Alabama, on 12 June 2010. Photo: D. Martin/AP

Volume 472 Issue 7342

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Editorial

  • The Japanese authorities have done well in releasing copious amounts of crude data on the nuclear crisis. But it is imperative for the data to be provided in more meaningful and user-friendly ways.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Worst-case scenarios happen. We must prepare for them and be able to respond.

    Editorial

  • Rejection of broad commonality in structure of languages has implications for all sciences.

    Editorial
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World View

  • The current obsession with nuclear power is a red herring, says Marty Hoffert. The United States and others should instead invest in a clean-energy revolution.

    • Marty Hoffert
    World View
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Research Highlights

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Seven Days

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News

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Correction

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News Feature

  • The Gulf of Mexico oil spill set records for its size and depth. A year on, the biggest impacts seem to be where they are hardest to spot.

    • Mark Schrope
    News Feature

  • Scientists reviving a decades-old technique for brain stimulation have found that it can boost learning. So what else can be done with some wires and a nine-volt battery?

    • Douglas Fox
    News Feature
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Comment

  • Curbing nitrogen emissions is a central environmental challenge for the twenty-first century, argue Mark Sutton and his colleagues.

    • Mark A. Sutton
    • Oene Oenema
    • Wilfried Winiwarter
    Comment

  • A year after the oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Jeffrey Short and Susan Murray call for action to prevent an even more nightmarish scenario: a spill in the Arctic.

    • Jeffrey Short
    • Susan Murray
    Comment
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Books & Arts

  • A history of early transfusions mixes experiment and ethics with Anglo-French rivalry, finds W. F. Bynum

    • W. F. Bynum
    Books & Arts

  • Bart Penders relishes an account of 'biohackers' who experiment beyond the confines of the lab.

    • Bart Penders
    Books & Arts

  • A biographical play reveals the odd character of the father of gravity, finds Philip Ball.

    • Philip Ball
    Books & Arts
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Correspondence

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Obituary

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News & Views

  • Beautiful experiments in an ultracold, strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas reveal that, unexpectedly, unpaired atomic spins flow in the system with the maximum resistance permitted by the laws of quantum mechanics. See Letter p.201

    • John E. Thomas
    News & Views

  • A sodium channel known for its role in the perception of pain also seems to be necessary for olfaction. The multiple roles of this channel and the diverse effects of its mutations raise intriguing questions. See Article p.186

    • Stephen G. Waxman
    News & Views

  • A fossil from the Early Cretaceous provides insight into the evolution of the hearing apparatus in mammals. Anchoring the eardrum was, it seems, an essential step in freeing the middle ear from the jaw. See Article p.181

    • Anne Weil
    News & Views

  • Maintaining an optimal cellular energy status requires sensing the levels of the adenine nucleotides ATP, ADP and AMP. Biochemical and structural studies of the enzyme AMPK provide insights into how this is achieved. See Letter p.230

    • D. Grahame Hardie
    News & Views

  • The sandfish, a type of desert lizard, can vanish into a sandy substrate in a blink of an eye. Approaches that draw on mathematics, physics and engineering provide complementary insights into how the animal achieves this feat.

    • Stephanie B. Crofts
    • Adam P. Summers
    News & Views

  • Solvent vapour annealing processes are used to optimize the material properties of thin films of semiconducting polymers used in electronic devices. One such process has now been examined at the molecular level.

    • Yi Fu
    • Joseph R. Lakowicz
    News & Views

  • Salmonella intestinal pathogens employ a clever trick. They use the immune response that their host triggers to destroy them to enhance the expression of genes that mediate the pathogens' virulence.

    • Michelle M. C. Buckner
    • B. Brett Finlay
    News & Views
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Article

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Letter

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Corrigendum

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Erratum

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Feature

  • US scientists who take on consultancy can gain experience, supplement their income — and face logistical challenges.

    • Amanda Leigh Mascarelli
    Feature
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Q&A

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Futures

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Brief Communications Arising

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