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Constitutional law can make the eyes glaze over, but scientists need to be wary of subtle amendments that may undermine a fundamental liberty enshrined in most constitutions: scientific freedom.
Researchers have pulled the oldest-yet core of ice from the Antarctic — giving us a 740,000-year record of the planet's climate. Gabrielle Walker braves the cold to find out how they did it, and what they hope to learn.
The search for potentially valuable natural products is flagging. Could new rules on ownership of these resources give it a boost? Rex Dalton investigates.
A record of Earth's climate over the past eight ice ages and their associated interglacial periods has been uncovered from a new ice core in Antarctica, almost doubling the age of previous ice-core records.
Two investigations into bat echolocation provide striking examples of the sophistication and the possible evolutionary and ecological consequences of variability in call design.
The top quark is by far the heaviest elementary particle known. A measurement of its mass with higher precision has bearing on our understanding of the fundamental interactions of nature.
Astronomers have found evidence of molecular nitrogen in the clouds of gas between the Earth and a distant star. The chemistry involved in the formation of these diffuse clouds might need to be rethought.
A country's affluence depends partly on its institutions. Geographic and other factors yield a fuller explanation, illuminate the origins of ‘good’ institutions, and suggest targets for foreign aid.
Powerful computer simulations have resolved the mechanism for the nanoscale assembly of the ‘hut’-like clusters that form after a few layers of atoms have been deposited on certain solid surfaces.
Using an integrated approach, it is possible to identify the molecular addresses on blood-vessel walls that are read by blood cells — and, at least in rats, to deliver imaging agents and drugs to specific tissues.
Diagnosis has traditionally been overshadowed by new drug discoveries. But the expansion of molecular diagnostics is creating new careers for researchers in many fields. Hannah Hoag reports.
