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The world's poorest continent is rightly at the top of the global agenda this year. But the agenda needs to be set by Africa, with the outside world in a supporting role — not the other way round.
A small budget and big dreams make for a heady mix. But solar-sail pioneer Lou Friedman is ready for anything as spacecraft Cosmos 1 prepares to take on the Sun and the space agencies. Tony Reichhardt reports.
Just how proteins jostle around in the fatty membrane that surrounds every living cell has been a source of debate for decades. Now one researcher is using an ultra-high-speed camera to watch this dance in unprecedented detail — but that hasn't stopped the arguments. Alison Abbott investigates.
Researchers are getting better at making silicon do what it really does not like to do — emit light. A silicon laser is now demonstrated that has promising features for future practical applications.
The discovery that cell death in nematode worms induces fragmentation of mitochondria reveals a new parallel to the death process in mammals, and may shed light on why mitochondria divide in death.
Adaptation by natural selection is the centrepiece of biology. Yet evolutionary biologists may be deluding themselves if they think they have a good handle on the typical strength of selection in nature.
When interplanetary shock waves hit the Cassini spacecraft and then Saturn in January 2004, it presented a unique opportunity to study the planet's magnetosphere and to compare it with that of Earth.
A lack of blood flow can kill nerve cells, by causing a massive influx of calcium ions. But what's happened to the cellular mechanisms for coping with excess calcium?
The discovery of light-sensitive neurons that can adjust our body clocks prompted a search for their light-detecting molecule. We now know the identity of this pigment — and that these cells do more than was thought.
Are women being held back by an ‘innate difference’: their ability to give birth? With better academic policies, motherhood and scientific excellence would not seem mutually exclusive, says Virginia Gewin.
