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.
The US Congress has turned the Los Alamos National Laboratory into a political pawn. The damage done will take a long time to rectify. Despite their mistakes, the national defence laboratories need far greater support from their country's leaders.
Scientists at two major Japanese research facilities are finalizing plans for a joint project aimed at comparing the genome of humans with that of chimpanzees.
The US National Institutes of Health has become caught in the cross-fire over one of the most contentious issues in the US presidential campaign: the high cost of therapeutic drugs.
The Indian Space Research Organization is about to submit a feasibility report to the Government seeking permission and funding for a manned mission to the moon. It says and says if it gets the go-ahead it can launch by 2005.
Last week’s announcement of the draft sequence of the human genome has prompted politicians in Germany and Italy to publish proposals for expanded programmes of genome research.
A three-member panel of experts nominated by parliament would have full control of all aspects of Italian genomics research, under a private members bill approved last week by a committee of the Italian Senate.
The presidents of America’s major research universities have come up with a plan for policing research on human subjects to address mounting public concern about the safety of individuals used in such research.
High attendance at a physics meeting in Vienna - as well as the continued preparedness of foreign scientists to referee Austria research proposals - suggest that fears of a boycott of Austria by the international scientific community have not materialized.
New Zealand researchers are hoping for an easing of strict controls on research using genetically modified organisms, after a resolution by the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.
A panel set up by the National Academy of Science last week endorsed plans to send NASA’s Galileo spacecraft on an eventual suicide mission into Jupiter’s atmosphere, in order to avoid contaminating the planet’s potentially life harbouring moons.
A company in Massachusetts is seeking permission to market salmon genetically modified to grow faster than normal. Tony Reichhardt explores the potential ecological risks, should the fish escape from salmon farms.
Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat was a thought experiment applying the physics of electrons and atoms to our macroscopic world. New experiments with superconductors narrow the gap between theoretical ideas and reality.
A protein called glycogen synthase kinase-3β is already known to participate in early embryonic development and cell-fate determination. Now it seems that the protein is also involved in a cell’s decision to live or die.
Bose-Einstein condensates - ultracold atoms that share the same quantum state - were first created in 1995. Since then, techniques have improved to the extent that theorists now dream of using condensates to model physical systems such as black holes and galaxy clusters.
Concern over depletion of the ozone layer in part centres on the possible consequences of more ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth’s surface. One such outcome may be increased mutation rates in some species of plants, but the research concerned will need to be followed up with more detailed studies.
A new technique for growing nanostructures on a silicon surface combines accuracy and speed. The end product is a straight line of organic molecules, which may one day be used as molecular wires.
Studies of lakes in North America reveal that concentrations of phosphate, an essential nutrient for aquatic microorganisms, are 100-1,000 times lower than estimated with conventional techniques. Among the implications are the possible need to rethink nutrient dynamics in both freshwater and marine ecosystems..
Parasites can it seems stabilize and regulate populations of their hosts, but it has proved tough to find evidence of the process in natural conditions. An example now comes from analysis of a finch population in the United States, which has become infected by a bacterium causing eye disease.
Putting plants to work for ‘bioremediation’ of contaminated land is this week’s scheme. Certain plants can tolerate - and accumulate - high concentrations of metals. With some nifty genetic engineering, Daedalus reckons the process can be geared up not only for environmental purposes but for metal production as well.
