Collection 09 May 2018

NatureTech

Welcome to Nature Research Tech, our home for life-science technology coverage from across Nature Research.

Here, we spotlight the technology behind the science, allowing the materials, methods, and instrumentation that make science possible to take center stage. Our goal: to provide current and need-to-know information that scientists can implement in their own labs.

Nature technology editor Jeffrey Perkel also blogs regularly about new scientific tools at Naturejobs; you can access his posts here. Nature Methods' technology editor Vivien Marx and the Nature Methods team blog at Methagora.

Technology Features

A milestone map of mouse-brain connectivity reveals challenging new terrain for scientists

A pioneering ‘connectomics’ collaboration has successfully reconstructed one cubic millimetre of brain tissue, but researchers are still just scratching the surface of the complexity it contains.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature15 Apr 2024 Nature
‘Without these tools, I’d be lost’: how generative AI aids in accessibility

A rush to place barriers around the use of artificial intelligence in academia could disproportionately affect those who stand to benefit most.
- Amanda Heidt
Technology Feature8 Apr 2024 Nature
How synthetic biologists are building better biofactories

Artificial electron donors and acceptors expand researchers’ metabolic engineering options — if only cells would cooperate.
- Sara Reardon
Technology Feature1 Apr 2024 Nature
Closing in on cancer heterogeneity with organoids

Organoids are an emerging way to model the fraught complexity of tumors.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature25 Mar 2024 Nature Methods
One year, three researchers, millions of cells: how a small team created the largest mouse-embryo atlas so far

A map of mouse development from conception to birth tracks 12.4 million cells at single-cell resolution as they mature into organs and other tissues.
- Sara Reardon
Technology Feature20 Mar 2024 Nature
So … you’ve been hacked

Research institutions are under siege from cybercriminals and other digital assailants. How do you make sure you don’t let them in?
- Michael Brooks
Technology Feature19 Mar 2024 Nature
No installation required: how WebAssembly is changing scientific computing

Enabling code execution in the web browser, the multilanguage tool is powerful but complicated.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature11 Mar 2024 Nature
Five tips for digitizing handwritten data

Need to digitize field notes or historical documents? Researchers share their best practices.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature5 Mar 2024 Nature
Collaborate, disseminate, accelerate

Collaborations between researchers and companies can progress swimmingly and teams quickly validate findings and mature methods. All too often, things can’t advance and the ‘Valley of Death’ looms. New ways to collaborate, underpinned by computational muscle, can help.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature27 Feb 2024 Nature Methods
How phase separation is revolutionizing biology

Imaging and molecular manipulation reveal how biomolecular condensates form and offer clues to the role of phase separation in health and disease.
- Elie Dolgin
Technology Feature27 Feb 2024 Nature
Super-speedy sequencing puts genomic diagnosis in the fast lane

Streamlined workflows for DNA and RNA sequencing are helping clinicians to deliver prompt, targeted care to people in days — or even hours.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature19 Feb 2024 Nature
Inside the chase after those elusive proteoforms

Human cells contain crowds of protein variants, but, especially in a time of funding challenges, chasing these proteoforms takes dogged persistence.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature2 Feb 2024 Nature Methods
Seven technologies to watch in 2024

Advances in artificial intelligence are at the heart of many of this year’s most exciting areas of technological innovation
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature22 Jan 2024 Nature
Aging research comes of age

As money pours into aging research, the field can combine its many methods to home in on what underpins aging. Approaches differ, but researchers share the desire to not overpromise quick-fix anti-aging methods.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature2 Jan 2024 Nature Methods
Wearable biosensor measures fertility hormones in sweat

Ring-like device blends nanoelectronics and folded RNA to track hormone levels without the need for invasive blood tests.
- Amanda Heidt
Technology Feature30 Nov 2023 Nature
AI under the microscope: the algorithms powering the search for cells

Deep learning is driving the rapid evolution of algorithms that can automatically find and trace cells in a wide range of microscopy experiments.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature27 Nov 2023 Nature
Microbial miners take on rare-earth metals

As a tech-hungry world gobbles up rare-earth elements, researchers are adapting bacteria that can isolate and purify the metals in the absence of harsh chemicals.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature20 Nov 2023 Nature
Five ways in which rookie lab leaders can get up to speed

An array of spreadsheets, courses and online resources are available to support principal investigators leading their first research groups.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature6 Nov 2023 Nature
A sound solution for deep-brain imaging

Ultrasound-based modalities are revealing the brain’s inner workings with steadily increasing speed, resolution and depth.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature30 Oct 2023 Nature Methods
Soft-landing methods aim to simplify structural biology

Linking mass spectrometry with cryo-electron microscopy could transform understanding of complex protein structures — if scientists can show that samples remain intact when they hit their target.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature16 Oct 2023 Nature
How open-source software could finally get the world’s microscopes speaking the same language

A plethora of standards mean shareable and verifiable microscopy data often get lost in translation. Biologists are working on a solution.
- Michael Brooks
Technology Feature2 Oct 2023 Nature
Greening the lab

Making biological research more sustainable requires an accurate assessment of its environmental impact, both at the bench and on the computer.
- Caroline Seydel
Technology Feature20 Sep 2023 Nature Methods
Catching proteins at play: the method revealing the cell’s inner mysteries

Cryo-electron tomography is a hugely promising tool in visual proteomics — if researchers can work out what they are seeing.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature18 Sep 2023 Nature
A tough ask: high-efficiency, large-cargo prime editing

Researchers like the gene-editing method called prime editing for its precision and versatility. As they ask the method to do more, many factors shape what happens next.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature25 Aug 2023 Nature Methods
The quest to map the mouse brain

By combining single-cell sequencing with methods to map the spatial location of gene expression, scientists are unravelling the extraordinary cellular diversity of the brain.
- Diana Kwon
Technology Feature16 Aug 2023 Nature
Sharp resolution, big samples: ExA-SPIM microscope accelerates brain imaging

An innovative microscopy technique bridges the gap between field of view and resolution.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature11 Aug 2023 Nature
Artificial-intelligence search engines wrangle academic literature

Developers want to free scientists to focus on discovery and innovation by helping them to draw connections from a massive body of literature.
- Amanda Heidt
Technology Feature7 Aug 2023 Nature
Soil researchers dig deeper into dirt’s complexity

To study soil with a view to ecosystems, researchers iterate between experiments in the lab, the field and controlled environments.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 Jul 2023 Nature Methods
A pink rover tackles the red planet — and barriers for women in science

An Australian team designed the eye-catching robot to spark conversations about diversity in engineering and robotics.
- Amanda Heidt
Technology Feature19 Jul 2023 Nature
Germs, genes and soil: tales of pathogens past

Armed with DNA sequencers and powerful computational tools, archaeogeneticists are turning their attention towards ancient microbes to give bacteria their due in human history.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature12 Jul 2023 Nature
Foldseek gives AlphaFold protein database a rapid search tool

The structural search program makes finding proteins with similar 3D shapes easy.
- Matthew Hutson
Technology Feature29 Jun 2023 Nature
To share is to be a scientist

Wrangling big data is now part of being a biomedical scientist, and mandates on data sharing have entered the scene. Mandates can alter behavior, but data sharing also needs incentives and shifts in science culture.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Jun 2023 Nature Methods
How to make your scientific data accessible, discoverable and useful

Specialists offer seven tips for effectively sharing your data.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature27 Jun 2023 Nature
How scientists are hacking the genetic code to give proteins new powers

By modifying the blueprint of life, researchers are endowing proteins with chemistries they’ve never had before.
- Diana Kwon
Technology Feature20 Jun 2023 Nature
Powerful microscope captures motor proteins in unprecedented detail

Called MINFLUX, the super-resolution method allows researchers to track molecules under cellular conditions.
- Amanda Heidt
Technology Feature8 Jun 2023 Nature
Six tips for better coding with ChatGPT

Although powerful, the tools are not as intelligent as they seem. Use them with caution, computer scientists warn.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature5 Jun 2023 Nature
Welcome to the nursery

As they pursue their puzzles of interest, scientists are inventive caretakers of the organisms in their keep, especially the young.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature18 May 2023 Nature Methods
Brain imaging: fMRI advances make scans sharper and faster

Researchers are finding ways to improve one of neuroscientists’ favourite tools: functional magnetic resonance imaging.
- Diana Kwon
Technology Feature15 May 2023 Nature
Tuning in to epigenetic cross-talk

Chemical modifications to DNA, histones and RNA make changes happen. Scientists are exploring ways to track these modifications and how they interact.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature3 May 2023 Nature Methods
The sleight-of-hand trick that can simplify scientific computing

Computational environments and the tools to manage them can help researchers to deliver code that is reproducible, documented and shareable.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature1 May 2023 Nature
Disasters happen — here’s how to soften their blow in the lab

Preparation and flexibility are key to a smooth recovery.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature20 Apr 2023 Nature
Every base everywhere all at once: pangenomics comes of age

Multi-genome assemblies called pangenomes can capture genetic diversity in a species, but researchers are still working out how best to build and explore them.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature18 Apr 2023 Nature
Researchers dig into cancer niches

The tumor microenvironment is a source of cancer’s strength. Multi-omics and new spatial techniques stand to find ways to weaken it.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature3 Apr 2023 Nature Methods
Octopus and ResearchEquals aim to break the publishing mould

Modular platforms that allow authors to publish pieces of the research process hope to make academic publishing more accessible.
- Payal Dhar
Technology Feature22 Mar 2023 Nature
How Latin America’s genomics revolution began — and why the field is under threat

The sequencing of two bacterial species created a legacy that could be at risk without further investment, warn the region’s genomic leaders.
- Carrie Arnold
Technology Feature20 Mar 2023 Nature
‘Spell-checker for statistics’ reduces errors in the psychology literature

Developed to detect statistical errors, statcheck reduces mistakes in reported P values by up to 4.5-fold.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Technology Feature15 Mar 2023 Nature
How cell-free processes could speed up vaccine development

Rather than relying on yeast and bacteria, bioengineers are looking for cheaper and easier ways to make proteins and other biomolecules.
- Carrie Arnold
Technology Feature13 Mar 2023 Nature
Proteomics sets up single-cell and single-molecule solutions

New instruments are emerging in single-cell and single-molecule proteomics. This will offer labs a choice of technologies.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature10 Mar 2023 Nature Methods
Astrobiologists train an AI to find life on Mars

An artificial-intelligence model trialled in Chile’s Atacama Desert could one day detect signs of life on other planets.
- Amanda Heidt
Technology Feature6 Mar 2023 Nature
These tools help visually impaired scientists read data and journals

Innovative software and modes of presentation are helping to broaden access to the literature.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature6 Mar 2023 Nature
Innovative technologies crowd the short-read sequencing market

With a dizzying range of strategies available, laboratories must weigh up their options to find the best fit for their projects
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature20 Feb 2023 Nature
Actin in action

To gain insight into cell function, researchers are tracking the cytoskeleton and its parts, such as actin. They combine methods, find new trackers and validate them.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature10 Feb 2023 Nature Methods
Smart microscopes spot fleeting biology

Automated microscopes that adapt to each sample’s quirks can capture elusive biological phenomena at high resolution.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature7 Feb 2023 Nature
‘Arms race with automation’: professors fret about AI-generated coursework

Instructors are rethinking student assignments to tackle an anticipated surge in bogus essays, a Nature poll finds.
- Amanda Heidt
Technology Feature24 Jan 2023 Nature
Seven technologies to watch in 2023

Nature’s pick of tools and techniques that are poised to have an outsized impact on science in the coming year.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature23 Jan 2023 Nature
Confused by open-access policies? These tools can help

Emerging software helps funding agencies and scientists to ensure that research follows the rules.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Technology Feature20 Jan 2023 Nature
Method of the year: long-read sequencing

To large-scale projects and individual labs, long-read sequencing has delivered new vistas and long wish lists for this technology’s future.
- Vivien Marx
News Feature12 Jan 2023 Nature Methods
Hunting for the best bioscience software tool? Check this database

A data set funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative shows how research software and tools are used across disciplines — and helps developers gain credit for their work.
- Matthew Hutson
Technology Feature12 Jan 2023 Nature
The reproducibility issues that haunt health-care AI

Health-care systems are rolling out artificial-intelligence tools for diagnosis and monitoring. But how reliable are the models?
- Emily Sohn
Technology Feature9 Jan 2023 Nature
Which single-cell analysis tool is best? Scientists offer advice

In the fast-paced field of single-cell biology, studies that compare methods can help scientists to pick the right technique for their research.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature13 Dec 2022 Nature
Eavesdropping on extracellular vesicles

A rapidly evolving toolbox is helping researchers to get a handle on the biological and functional diversity of these ubiquitous — but still somewhat enigmatic — cell-secreted nanoparticles
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature21 Nov 2022 Nature Methods
Safe space: online groups lift up women in tech

Four leaders of groups dedicated to women in technology share their stories and tips for better allyship.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature21 Nov 2022 Nature
Patch-seq takes neuroscience to a multimodal place

Patch-seq delivers morphology, electrophysiology and transcriptomic data to those with skill, patience and persistence.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature3 Nov 2022 Nature Methods
Could AI help you to write your next paper?

Large language models can draft abstracts or suggest research directions, but these artificial-intelligence tools are a work in progress.
- Matthew Hutson
Technology Feature31 Oct 2022 Nature
Thumb-sized microscope captures images deep inside the brains of active animals

After years of development, researchers have managed to shrink two-photon microscopy into a device that can be mounted on rodents’ heads without impeding behaviour.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature25 Oct 2022 Nature
Some roads ahead for noncoding RNAs

Researchers roll up their sleeves for the work ahead in the noncoding RNA field.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature6 Oct 2022 Nature Methods
How noncoding RNAs began to leave the junkyard

The research community focused on noncoding RNAs keeps growing. Skepticism about the field has some history.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature6 Oct 2022 Nature Methods
Taking the pain out of data sharing

Despite agreeing to make raw data available, some authors fail to comply. The right strategies and platforms can ease the task.
- Matthew Hutson
Technology Feature3 Oct 2022 Nature
Five ways deep learning has transformed image analysis

From connectomics to behavioural biology, artificial intelligence is making it faster and easier to extract information from images.
- Sandeep Ravindran
Technology Feature20 Sep 2022 Nature
Smart software untangles gene regulation in cells

Working out how a cell is wired lets researchers find key regulators of behaviour.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature5 Sep 2022 Nature
Poor English skills? New AIs help researchers to write better

Machine-learning tools can correct grammar and advise on the style and tone of presentations — but they must be used with caution.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature29 Aug 2022 Nature
Diving deeper into the proteome

As new technology enables researchers to find and characterize less-common post-translational modifications that drive gene expression and cellular metabolism, the movement to catalog the entire human proteome gains momentum
- Caroline Seydel
Technology Feature25 Aug 2022 Nature Methods
A graphics toolkit for visualizing genome data

Powerful ‘grammar’ allows geneticists to display their data in interactive and scalable illustrations.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature16 Aug 2022 Nature
Six tips for better spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are powerful and widely used. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to use them, data scientists say.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature2 Aug 2022 Nature
Why the ocean virome matters

Expeditions are delivering data wealth about our planet’s oceans, including its microbes. Some labs are now diving deep into the ocean virome.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Jul 2022 Nature Methods
Trawling the ocean virome

Even without a stint on an ocean-faring vessel, scientists can trawl through data to explore marine viruses and address new puzzles and cultural shifts.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Jul 2022 Nature Methods
Light-based sensors set to revolutionize on-site testing

Nanophotonic biosensors exploit light’s properties to detect molecular interactions in real time at the point of need.
- Diana Kwon
Technology Feature25 Jul 2022 Nature
Ex-Google chief’s venture aims to save neglected science software

Schmidt Futures is creating the US$40-million Virtual Institute of Scientific Software to fund the maintenance of researcher-written code.
- David Matthews
Technology Feature13 Jul 2022 Nature
Need web data? Here’s how to harvest them

Webscraping is a useful tool for gathering data from public websites, but researchers must develop some fundamental software skills to use it.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature5 Jul 2022 Nature
How to make spatial maps of gene activity — down to the cellular level

Computational and experimental methods are bringing researchers closer to their goal of revealing exactly where in a cell or tissue each gene is expressed.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature27 Jun 2022 Nature
The making of microscope camera standards

Cameras are a crucial part of microscopes and are also built into many kinds of instruments. To make their output comparable takes standards.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature24 Jun 2022 Nature Methods
Imaging standards to ease reproducibility and the everyday

Imaging and microscopy technology advances in leaps and bounds. To address accumulated pain points, academics and companies are making headway on standards.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature24 Jun 2022 Nature Methods
Cloud labs: where robots do the research

A host of companies provide a remote, automated workforce for conducting experiments around the clock.
- Carrie Arnold
Technology Feature13 Jun 2022 Nature
Modeling the early embryo

Widespread adoption of new embryo models hinges on how faithfully they mirror real embryos.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature6 Jun 2022 Nature Methods
How engineers and drug developers are working to change childhood cancer’s deadly calculus

A non-profit organization merges engineering and biology to accelerate drug development for childhood cancers.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature30 May 2022 Nature
The overlooked variable in animal studies: why diet makes a difference

Careful consideration and documentation of laboratory animals’ diets will boost the reproducibility of experiments.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature23 May 2022 Nature
Conservation genomics in practice

Securing biodiversity takes many measures, including the involvement of Indigenous peoples.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature11 May 2022 Nature Methods
Methods combine to decode the biology of tuberculosis

Scientists are fusing sequencing, chemistry and imaging techniques to probe interactions between pathogens and their host cells.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature9 May 2022 Nature
Unlocking the potential of health data to help research and treatments

Medical records can be tricky to access because of confidentiality and variability, but data-sharing efforts are helping to overcome these hurdles — without compromising patient privacy.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature3 May 2022 Nature
Base edit your way to better crops

Plant scientists are turning to genome-editing techniques to precisely tailor the productivity and consumer appeal of important crops.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature27 Apr 2022 Nature
Lessons from the Global South’s fight against COVID-19

Against the backdrop of its many battles with infectious disease, the Global South applies networking and creative grit to face COVID-19.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature8 Apr 2022 Nature Methods
In pursuit of data immortality

Data sharing can save important scientific work from extinction, but only if researchers take care to ensure that resources are easy to find and reuse.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature4 Apr 2022 Nature
Molecular barcodes reveal tumour lineages

Researchers are blending tools from developmental biology with technologies such as cell sorting and CRISPR to gain fresh insight into cancer.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature21 Mar 2022 Nature
The chemistry of microbiome–host togetherness

Labs are stacking techniques to disentangle the chemical influences of microbiomes.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature2 Mar 2022 Nature Methods
Cut the tyranny of copy-and-paste with these coding tools

‘Executable manuscripts’ insert results directly into documents, eliminating common mistakes.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature28 Feb 2022 Nature
Revealing chromosome contours, one dot at a time

Methods that meld imaging with sequencing are uncovering the organizational principles of the genome — and how it influences cell fates.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature21 Feb 2022 Nature
How single-cell multi-omics builds relationships

Labs reaping information from single cells balance desirables with headaches such as data sparsity, cost and protocol surprises.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature1 Feb 2022 Nature Methods
How to fix your scientific coding errors

Software bugs are frustrating. Adopting some simple strategies can help you to avoid them, and fix them when they occur.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature31 Jan 2022 Nature
Seven technologies to watch in 2022

Our fifth annual round-up of the tools that look set to shake up science this year.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature25 Jan 2022 Nature
Method of the Year: protein structure prediction

Nature Methods has named protein structure prediction the Method of the Year 2021.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature11 Jan 2022 Nature Methods
Terra takes the pain out of ‘omics’ computing in the cloud

The web-based tool allows scalable, user-friendly computation across multiple data sets
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature4 Jan 2022 Nature
Embryo-like models shed fresh light on early human development

A wave of stem-cell systems are enabling researchers to unpick what happens after an embryo implants in the uterus.
- Sandeep Ravindran
Technology Feature16 Dec 2021 Nature
How remouldable computer hardware is speeding up science

Field-programmable gate arrays can speed up applications ranging from genomic alignment to deep learning.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature7 Dec 2021 Nature
Python power-up: new image tool visualizes complex data

The image viewing and analysis software napari has filled a gap in the programming language’s scientific ecosystem.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature6 Dec 2021 Nature
Single-cell metabolomics hits its stride

An array of new techniques allow researchers to catalog the chemical contents of a single cell, or even a single organelle.
- Caroline Seydel
Technology Feature3 Dec 2021 Nature Methods
Artificial intelligence powers protein-folding predictions

Deep-learning algorithms such as AlphaFold2 and RoseTTAFold can now predict a protein’s 3D shape from its linear sequence — a huge boon to structural biologists.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature23 Nov 2021 Nature
An expanding molecular toolbox untangles neural circuits

Scientists are developing ways to probe the activity, function and organization of neurons in real time with increasing precision.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature9 Nov 2021 Nature
Microscopy made to order

The proliferation of versatile open software and hardware for microscopy is helping to democratize biological imaging for both current and aspiring scientists.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature3 Nov 2021 Nature Methods
Refining the toolkit for sugar analysis

Antibodies and other reagents for glycans have lagged behind those for proteins and nucleic acids, but the field is catching up.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature1 Nov 2021 Nature
Colour me better: fixing figures for colour blindness

Images can be made more accessible by choosing hues, shapes and textures carefully.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature4 Oct 2021 Nature
Neuroscientists go wireless

To study the neural complexities of animals moving though physical and social space, labs increasingly turn to wireless technology.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature27 Sep 2021 Nature Methods
Single-cell proteomics takes centre stage

Deducing the full protein complement of individual cells has long played second fiddle to transcriptomics. That’s about to change.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature20 Sep 2021 Nature
On the road to refinement

‘Good welfare is good science,’ the saying goes. But how do researchers, veterinarians, and animal care staff refine the lives of their laboratory animals?
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature10 Sep 2021 Lab Animal
Five keys to writing a reproducible lab protocol

Effective sharing of experimental methods is crucial to ensuring that others can repeat results. An abundance of tools is available to help.
- Monya Baker
Technology Feature6 Sep 2021 Nature
Drowning in the literature? These smart software tools can help

Search engines that highlight key papers are keeping scientists up to date.
- David Matthews
Technology Feature1 Sep 2021 Nature
Innovative tools take aim at antibiotic-resistant microbes

Diagnostics that rely on bacterial movements, genomics and machine learning could help to address a global crisis.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature23 Aug 2021 Nature
Tools to cut the sweet layer-cake that is glycoproteomics

Proteins and sugars interact in sweet, complex ways. More tools are emerging, but working in this field still takes endurance.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature17 Aug 2021 Nature Methods
Mice on the move

Animal welfare concerns, reduced flight options and increased costs are pushing researchers to consider shipping frozen sperm and embryos rather than live mice.
- Charlotte Harrison
Technology Feature9 Aug 2021 Lab Animal
The hunt for red fluorescent proteins

By pushing fluorescent proteins further into the red, bioengineers are expanding the palette and penetration depth of biological imaging.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature3 Aug 2021 Nature
Single-cell analysis enters the multiomics age

A rapidly growing collection of software tools is helping researchers to analyse multiple huge ‘-omics’ data sets.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature19 Jul 2021 Nature
Exploring the diverse, intimate lives of plants

New ways to assess plant–microbe interactions can yield unexpected paths to biodiversity.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature16 Jul 2021 Nature Methods
Rats on the rise

After a genetic revolution in the 80s, mice overtook rats as the laboratory animal of choice for many researchers. But in recent years, the gene editing capabilities that had lagged a little for the larger rodent have been coming up to par with their murine cousins. Is a return to rats on the way?
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature14 Jul 2021 Lab Animal
Digital secrets of successful lab management

Group leaders say these tools keep their research groups running smoothly.
- Kendall Powell
Technology Feature28 Jun 2021 Nature
Biology begins to tangle with quantum computing

Quantum computing promises plenty, such as how it can massively accelerate some bioinformatics calculations.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature23 Jun 2021 Nature Methods
Five trendy technologies: where are they now?

A look at notable research tools and projects that have rocketed to prominence reveals some common routes to success.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature21 Jun 2021 Nature
Clarifying a crowded field of techniques

Tissue clearing methods let researchers see inside their animal models. However, there are a lot of options out there. Which to choose can depend on your question.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature16 Jun 2021 Lab Animal
Old-school computing: when your lab PC is ancient

Maintaining outdated PCs can be a matter of necessity — and a labour of love.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Technology Feature1 Jun 2021 Nature
Tick-tock, it’s RNA o’clock

There’s an evolving choice of ways to track the temporal dynamic of RNA biographies.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature27 May 2021 Nature Methods
How waste water is helping South Africa fight COVID-19

Detecting the coronavirus in samples from treatment plants could give early warning of outbreaks and new variants.
- Heather Richardson
Technology Feature24 May 2021 Nature
Animal models, open science, & space-omics

Animals are regular inhabitants of the International Space Station, but the knowledge they reveal doesn’t just end with their missions. Open science efforts are democratizing space science and helping researchers around the world understand what animal models of spaceflight can reveal about spending time among the stars.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature21 May 2021 Lab Animal
Smartphone science: apps test and track infectious diseases

The prevalence, power and portability of smartphones make them valuable tools for pathogen monitoring and citizen science.
- Sandeep Ravindran
Technology Feature10 May 2021 Nature
Reactive, reproducible, collaborative: computational notebooks evolve

A new breed of notebooks is taking data visualization and collaborative functionality to the next level, with spreadsheet simplicity.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature3 May 2021 Nature
Scientists set out to connect the dots on long COVID

With grit, urgency and creativity, scientists address the puzzle of long-haul COVID.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Apr 2021 Nature Methods
Elusive cancer cells dissected using developmental-biology toolkit

Unpicking how cancer stem cells divide and spread could help to explain how tumours grow and evade treatments.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature20 Apr 2021 Nature
An array of options for scaling up electrophysiology

New probes are letting neuroscientists record neuronal activity over larger areas and longer time periods
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature15 Apr 2021 Lab Animal
AI spots cell structures that humans can’t

Models can predict the location of cell structures from light-microscopy images alone, without the need for harmful fluorescence labelling.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature30 Mar 2021 Nature
Cancer researchers get a grip on immune cell plasticity

Immune cells can transform themselves with plasticity that cancer labs seek to harness.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature26 Mar 2021 Nature Methods
Electronic skin: from flexibility to a sense of touch

Flexible circuits inspired by human skin offer options for health monitoring, prosthetics and pressure-sensing robots.
- Katharine Sanderson
Technology Feature23 Mar 2021 Nature
Companion canines hold clues for cancer research
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature17 Mar 2021 Lab Animal
Technology alliance boosts efforts to store data in DNA

Trade group aims to advance technologies for storing big data.
- Sarah Vitak
Technology Feature3 Mar 2021 Nature
How to get started in quantum computing

Tempted to try your hand at a new technique? These tools will help you on your way.
- David Matthews
Technology Feature1 Mar 2021 Nature
Model organisms on roads less traveled

Beyond the well-known pantheon of model organisms are others. A shift is underway to level the playing field.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature24 Feb 2021 Nature Methods
Closing in on a complete human genome

Advances in sequencing technology mean that scientists are on the verge of finally finishing an end-to-end human genome map.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature22 Feb 2021 Nature
Keeping an eye on the human-animal interface

A look at viral surveillance and how researchers and veterinarians identify what animals may be susceptible to different viruses, including SARS-CoV-2.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature18 Feb 2021 Lab Animal
Five reasons why researchers should learn to love the command line

The text interface is intimidating, but can save researchers from mundane computing tasks. Just be sure you know what you’re doing.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature2 Feb 2021 Nature
Long road to long-read assembly

Genome assembly projects get a boost from high-accuracy long-read sequencing.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature1 Feb 2021 Nature Methods
Seven technologies to watch in 2021

COVID considerations unsurprisingly dominate the tech developments that could have a big impact in the coming year.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature26 Jan 2021 Nature
Model matchmaking

Building platforms to connect clinicians and model organism researchers.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature20 Jan 2021 Lab Animal
Sharper signals: how machine learning is cleaning up microscopy images

Computers trained to reduce the noise in micrographs can now tackle fresh data by themselves.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature11 Jan 2021 Nature
Method of the Year: spatially resolved transcriptomics

Nature Methods has crowned spatially resolved transcriptomics Method of the Year 2020.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature6 Jan 2021 Nature Methods
What’s your risk of catching COVID? These tools help you to find out

A look at apps that predict the chance of infection and illness depending on what you’re doing and where you are.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature21 Dec 2020 Nature
Core curriculum: learning to manage a shared microscopy facility

High-tech tools are increasingly being consolidated into specialized centres. Running these technological wonderlands takes a unique blend of skills.
- Sandeep Ravindran
Technology Feature8 Dec 2020 Nature
CRISPR gets crunchy

New wrinkles on the Nobel prize-winning method are creating new efficiencies, and new research opportunities.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature7 Dec 2020 Lab Animal
Why scientists are turning to Rust

Despite having a steep learning curve, the programming language offers speed and safety.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature1 Dec 2020 Nature
How DIY technologies are democratizing science

Open science and 3D printing are making it easier than ever for researchers to embrace do-it-yourself lab tools.
- Sandeep Ravindran
Technology Feature17 Nov 2020 Nature
Guide RNAs: it’s good to be choosy

CRISPR, now a Nobel-Prize-winning technology, comes in many flavors. And so do gRNAs.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature5 Nov 2020 Nature Methods
Studying life at the extremes

Researchers have invented methods to study microbes that thrive in the world’s most inhospitable environments.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature2 Nov 2020 Nature
Smart solutions for automated imaging

Algorithms trained to interpret microscope data can greatly extend the information that can be derived from the resulting images, or even optimize how imaging experiments are conducted.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature19 Oct 2020 Nature Methods
Probing fine-scale connections in the brain

Artificial intelligence and improved microscopy make it feasible to map the nervous system at ever-higher resolution.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature19 Oct 2020 Nature
Where the wild zebrafish are

Journeying into the field to study a model organism in its natural habitats.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature15 Oct 2020 Lab Animal
How to digitize your lab notebooks

Converting paper records to digital formats provides secure back-ups that researchers can access from anywhere.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Technology Feature28 Sep 2020 Nature
A menagerie of stem-cell models

When conventional laboratory models fail, stem cells from squirrels, seals and other species can come to researchers’ aid.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature22 Sep 2020 Nature
The basics of biocontainment

Studying potentially dangerous microbes in animal models of the disease they cause takes some extra considerations, as researchers and staff must perform their work under the careful restrictions of different biosafety level laboratories.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature9 Sep 2020 Lab Animal
Reality check for organoids in neuroscience

To better study human neurodevelopment, researchers advance organoids as brain models.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature9 Sep 2020 Nature Methods
When antibodies mislead: the quest for validation

Research antibodies don’t always do what it says on the tin. Test for true signals before you start your experiment.
- Monya Baker
Technology Feature7 Sep 2020 Nature
Streamline your writing — and collaborations — with these reference managers

A suite of tools can help researchers to manage citations for grants and papers, and share those references with colleagues.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature1 Sep 2020 Nature
Challenge to scientists: does your ten-year-old code still run?

Missing documentation and obsolete environments force participants in the Ten Years Reproducibility Challenge to get creative.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature24 Aug 2020 Nature
Molecular motion on ice

With advanced approaches to sample preparation and data analysis, scientists doing cryo-EM are starting to infer molecular movements from samples that are, literally, frozen.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature19 Aug 2020 Nature Methods
Set lasers to image

Engineers and neuroscientists working to advance multiphoton microscopy are pushing the depths, speeds, and scales of in vivo imaging.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature12 Aug 2020 Lab Animal
Migrating big astronomy data to the cloud

Six lessons from astronomy’s embrace of cloud computing.
- Charles Q. Choi
Technology Feature3 Aug 2020 Nature
Following the fate of cells in vivo

Researchers are building better barcodes and combining spatial and temporal tools to trace cell lineages from the earliest stages of animal development—and beyond.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature23 Jul 2020 Lab Animal
Change-makers bring on recombinant antibodies

There’s a growing affinity for recombinant antibodies. Some say it’s also high time for animal-free recombinants.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature22 Jul 2020 Nature Methods
Coronavirus vaccines get a biotech boost

Advances in technology are accelerating the search for drugs to arm the immune system against SARS-CoV-2.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature21 Jul 2020 Nature
Four tools that help researchers working in collaborations to see the big picture

What project-management software can do for scientists.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Technology Feature29 Jun 2020 Nature
When computational pipelines go ‘clank’

‘Omics pipeline builders and users face options and tough decisions.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Jun 2020 Nature Methods
Going viral in the animal facility

As metagenomics advances, virus hunters are finding novel infections in colonies of laboratory mice across the world. What that means for scientific research and the animals themselves can depend on the mouse.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature22 Jun 2020 Lab Animal
Artificial-intelligence tools aim to tame the coronavirus literature

Developers hope that tools for processing natural language will help biomedical researchers and clinicians to find the COVID-19 papers that they need.
- Matthew Hutson
Technology Feature9 Jun 2020 Nature
Alexa, do science! Voice-activated assistants hit the lab bench

Research-optimized tools can take notes, dictate instructions and answer questions, allowing researchers to work hands-free.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature9 Jun 2020 Nature
The search for microbial dark matter

Researchers are developing technologies to find and grow microbes that biologists have struggled to culture in the lab.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature8 Jun 2020 Nature
Frozen cells and empty cages: researchers struggle to revive stalled experiments after the lockdown

Abandoned experiments have to be restarted — sometimes from scratch.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature5 Jun 2020 Nature
African scientists leverage open hardware

A growing emphasis on do-it-yourself science is helping researchers to equip labs in resource-limited areas.
- Abdullahi Tsanni
Technology Feature1 Jun 2020 Nature
Microbial matters: modelling the complex web of host–microbiome interactions

Computational approaches help to map the extensive biochemical chatter between bacteria and their human hosts.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature26 May 2020 Nature
Cell biology befriends soft matter physics

Phase separation creates complex condensates in eukaryotic cells. To study these mysterious droplets, many disciplines come together.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature20 May 2020 Nature Methods
Coronavirus contact-tracing apps: can they slow the spread of COVID-19?

Google, Apple and researchers partner to build more secure and effective tools, but poor adoption could blunt efficacy.
- Mark Zastrow
Technology Feature19 May 2020 Nature
Sound bytes: sightless coding

For visually impaired researchers, learning to program can be challenging. A tool called CuriO offers a multisensory route.
- Constance Clare
Technology Feature12 May 2020 Nature
Mobilizing animal models against a pandemic

As COVID-19 continues to spread, the urgency of the hunt for effective therapeutics and vaccines has likewise grown. As with past outbreaks, animal models will be an important component of efforts to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus causes disease, and how best to defeat it.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature12 May 2020 Lab Animal
What can you do to make your lab greener?

DIY approaches help to minimize plastic use and energy waste in science research.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature11 May 2020 Nature
The software that powers scientific illustration

The web-based tool BioRender has become a staple of biomedical research drawings.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature8 May 2020 Nature
Coronavirus in context: Scite.ai tracks positive and negative citations for COVID-19 literature

Artificial-intelligence tool aims to reveal whether research findings are supported or contradicted by subsequent studies.
- Roxanne Khamsi
Technology Feature1 May 2020 Nature
Open science takes on the coronavirus pandemic

Data sharing, open-source designs for medical equipment, and hobbyists are all being harnessed to combat COVID-19.
- Mark Zastrow
Technology Feature24 Apr 2020 Nature
Nonhuman primate neuroimaging opens up

To bridge brains and make the most of their nonhuman primate models, neuroscientists are setting standards, building tools, and starting to share their neuroimaging data.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature24 Apr 2020 Lab Animal
Deep learning takes on tumours

Artificial-intelligence methods are moving into cancer research.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature21 Apr 2020 Nature
Coronavirus jolts labs to warp speed

To thwart SARS-CoV-2, labs hurry to hone assays, swap findings and share resources.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature17 Apr 2020 Nature Methods
Synchronized editing: the future of collaborative writing

A growing suite of tools allows teams of researchers to work collectively to edit scientific documents.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature31 Mar 2020 Nature
Building avatar armies with fish and flies

Personalizing zebrafish and fly models may help determine the best course of treatment for cancer patients.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature24 Mar 2020 Lab Animal
Cancer labs reach beyond exhausted T cells

T cells race to the scene in cancer and infection. To tease out what is special in cancer, scientists widen their scope and tool sets.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature18 Mar 2020 Nature Methods
Mischief-making bots attacked my scientific survey

A barrage of fake responses to her online questionnaire prompted psychologist Melissa Simone to ferret out the culprits.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature17 Mar 2020 Nature
Exposed: cells’ sugary secrets

Researchers are finally uncovering the truth about glycans — the sugar-based chains that coat cells and decorate many proteins.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature16 Mar 2020 Nature
Find a home for every imaging data set

Repositories let researchers store, share and access life‑science images — and maybe even extract new findings.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature2 Mar 2020 Nature
Get a look at Galleria

As researchers look for more mammalian alternatives, an old moth is learning new tricks.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature25 Feb 2020 Lab Animal
How to build a genome

A powerful set of molecular tools helps synthetic biologists to assemble DNA of different sizes, from the gene to the chromosome scale.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature24 Feb 2020 Nature
Bench pressing with genomics benchmarkers

Some -omics tools can be more accurate, sensitive or efficient than others. Yet benchmarking is no tell-all.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature20 Feb 2020 Nature Methods
Tech tools to make research more open and inclusive

Laboratory heads are deploying apps and software in innovative ways to build broad and diverse research groups.
- Kendall Powell
Technology Feature3 Feb 2020 Nature
The quest for an animal model of coral health and disease

Could a ‘lab rat’ for the coral field help researchers conserve these threatened animals in the wild?
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature27 Jan 2020 Lab Animal
When microbiologists plunge into the ocean

Microbiologists stake their claim: assessing climate change involves new ways of studying the ocean’s microbes.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature27 Jan 2020 Nature Methods
Technologies to watch in 2020

Thought leaders predict the tech developments that could have a big impact in the coming year.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature21 Jan 2020 Nature
Eleven tips for working with large data sets

Big data are difficult to handle. These tips and tricks can smooth the way.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Technology Feature13 Jan 2020 Nature
Boost that metabolomic confidence

Change is a constant in the burgeoning field of metabolomics. That includes data analysis tools and repositories.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature20 Dec 2019 Nature Methods
CRISPR takes genetic screens forward

Applying the molecular scissors to animals at scale is helping researchers delve into the potential roles of different genes.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature18 Dec 2019 Lab Animal
A picture is worth a thousand base pairs

A small but powerful toolset makes sharing genomic data visualizations straightforward.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Technology Feature2 Dec 2019 Nature
The microscope makers putting ever-larger biological samples under the spotlight

Microscopy has been a trade-off until now: the bigger the sample, the lower the resolution. But picking out cellular detail in mouse brains and more is becoming increasingly possible.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature26 Nov 2019 Nature
It’s free imaging — label-free, that is

Label-free imaging lets labs ‘see’ their samples less invasively than other techniques.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature21 Nov 2019 Nature Methods
Got mutation? ‘Base editors’ fix genomes one nucleotide at a time

A new class of CRISPR-based tools efficiently corrects point mutations in cell lines, animal models and perhaps the clinic.
- Sandeep Ravindran
Technology Feature18 Nov 2019 Nature
Make code accessible with these cloud services

Container platforms let researchers run each other’s software — and check the results.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature5 Nov 2019 Nature
The many ways to map many brains

Whether the animal has a few hundred neurons or a few billion, mapping the ‘brain’ is a complex endeavor for which there are several different tacks one might take. Data collection continues on.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature23 Oct 2019 Lab Animal
May mechanobiology work forcefully for you

Mechanical measurements would be easy if cells were homogeneous objects — they’re not.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature17 Oct 2019 Nature Methods
Genetic light bulbs illuminate the brain

Genetically encoded voltage indicators change colour in real time when neurons transmit electrical information, offering unprecedented insight into neural activity.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature14 Oct 2019 Nature
Deep learning powers a motion-tracking revolution

A surge in the development of artificial-intelligence technology is driving a new wave of open-source tools for analysing animal behaviour and posture.
- Roberta Kwok
Toolbox30 Sep 2019 Nature
Microbial chemistry gains fresh focus

The tools of chemical biology, genomics and data mining can yield insights into the metabolites of the microbiome.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature24 Sep 2019 Nature
Convergence in neuropsychiatric research

Labs in different neuropsychiatry subfields don’t always see eye to eye, but convergent approaches help them join forces to study these difficult conditions.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature19 Sep 2019 Nature Methods
Keeping large animals contained

Caring for lab animals is always a priority. But some, depending on the research they are being used for, can require extra attention. As the animals in question get bigger, the task of keeping them in contained facilities can just get a bit more challenging.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature19 Sep 2019 Lab Animal
Animal registries aim to reduce bias

Some advocates are betting that documenting experimental plans online will improve animal research, but uptake has been slow.
- Monya Baker
Technology Feature9 Sep 2019 Nature
Workflow systems turn raw data into scientific knowledge

How workflow tools can make your computational methods portable, maintainable, reproducible and shareable.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox2 Sep 2019 Nature
Animal models of Alzheimer’s disease embrace diversity

Alzheimer’s disease remains untreatable, despite decades of preclinical research to understand it better and find therapeutic targets. New ways of thinking about a variety animal models are rising to the challenge.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature19 Aug 2019 Lab Animal
Starfish enterprise: finding RNA patterns in single cells

Combining the data-analysis tool Starfish with technologies to pinpoint RNA’s cellular locations can add spatial detail to in situ transcriptomics.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature19 Aug 2019 Nature
A dream of single-cell proteomics

As single-cell proteomics emerges, perhaps labs can avoid the need to infer protein levels from mRNA abundances.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature12 Aug 2019 Nature Methods
Julia: come for the syntax, stay for the speed

Researchers often find themselves coding algorithms in one programming language, only to have to rewrite them in a faster one. An up-and-coming language could be the answer.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox30 Jul 2019 Nature
Playing a long game

Nanopore sequencing’s early adopters are pushing the limits of what can be achieved with ultra-long DNA reads, and they are also finding innovative ways to apply this technology to other biological questions.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature30 Jul 2019 Nature Methods
The computational protein designers

A new breed of protein engineers is finding that the best way to create a molecule is to build it from scratch.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature23 Jul 2019 Nature
To wild depths for new models

There are animals out there with unique phenotypes that could yield insight into human health and disease. Meet three such fishes from waters around the world: Antarctic icefish, Mexican cavefish, and Atlantic killfish.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature22 Jul 2019 Lab Animal
How to support open-source software and stay sane

Releasing lab-built open-source software often involves a mountain of unforeseen work for the developers.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Toolbox1 Jul 2019 Nature
Drone takes to the skies to image offshore reefs

Scientists are using uncrewed aircraft to map the topography of Guam’s coral reefs.
- Andrew Silver
Toolbox25 Jun 2019 Nature
Turning discarded DNA into ecology gold

Ecologists are monitoring biodiversity using DNA shed by wildlife into the environment.
- Sandeep Ravindran
Technology Feature25 Jun 2019 Nature
Engineers embrace microbiome messiness

The gut, plant roots, ocean sediments: microbiome engineers travel to explore and model microbially complex systems.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature19 Jun 2019 Nature Methods
Giving organoids room to grow

These 3D structures derived from human cells can be an improvement over simple cell lines, but organoids can still lack important physiological cues for development. Finding the right in vivo environment can take things a step further.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature17 Jun 2019 Lab Animal
Craft beautiful equations in Word with LaTeX

Manufacturers are ditching equation editors in word-processing software in favour of the LaTeX typesetting language. Here’s how to get started.
- David Matthews
Toolbox11 Jun 2019 Nature
A DIY approach to automating your lab

Do-it-yourself projects give researchers the equipment they need at bargain prices. But making your own technology requires commitment and time, and it is rarely easy.
- Mike May
Technology Feature20 May 2019 Nature
Animal behavior on auto

Researchers can’t sit their laboratory mice or fruit flies down and ask them how they’re feeling or why they’re behaving in a particular way. Instead, humans are left to observe and interpret the various clues their animals provide. Can machines help?
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature13 May 2019 Lab Animal
Machine learning, practically speaking

To apply machine learning, labs needn’t have years of computational expertise, but they do need a cautious mind-set.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature9 May 2019 Nature Methods
Web annotation tool Hypothesis hits a milestone

Users of the open-source software have posted more than 5 million comments on scholarly sites.
- Rina Shaikh-Lesko
Toolbox6 May 2019 Nature
The new techniques revealing the varied shapes of chromatin

Researchers are realizing that the DNA–protein complex doesn’t just have one form but many.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature6 May 2019 Nature
Seven ways scientists handle technology challenges in resource-poor settings

Researchers share their tips for working in environments with unreliable infrastructure.
- Charles Q. Choi
Toolbox1 May 2019 Nature
How some labs put more bio into biomaterials

The materials–biology interface is challenging to characterize, but new assays are on the way.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Apr 2019 Nature Methods
A simple approach to dating bones

Forensic anthropologist Ann Ross describes the techniques she uses to determine the age of human skeletons.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox23 Apr 2019 Nature
Automation: Chemistry shoots for the Moon

A new class of chemical instrumentation seeks to alleviate the tedium and complexity of organic syntheses.
- Katharine Sanderson
Technology Feature23 Apr 2019 Nature
The changing landscape for licensing lab mice

As methods to create new mouse models advance, protecting the intellectual property those animals represent is getting more complicated.
- Arlene Weintraub
Technology Feature8 Apr 2019 Lab Animal
11 ways to avert a data-storage disaster

Hard-drive failures are inevitable, but data loss doesn’t have to be.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox1 Apr 2019 Nature
What to do about those immunoprecipitation blues

ChIP-seq, DIP-seq and related techniques are informative genome-wide assays, but they don’t always work as planned.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Mar 2019 Nature Methods
Cellular censuses to guide cancer care

In the age of immunotherapy, cancer biologists are relying on a new generation of tools to learn how the interplay between tumours and immune cells shapes the course of disease.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature26 Mar 2019 Nature
Building an annotated ark

Genome sequencing technologies are improving, and researchers have their eyes on a lot more animals.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature18 Mar 2019 Lab Animal
AI empowers conservation biology

Faced with mountains of image and audio data, researchers are turning to artificial intelligence to answer pressing ecological questions.
- Roberta Kwok
Toolbox4 Mar 2019 Nature
How to follow metabolic clues to find cancer’s Achilles heel

Labs combine techniques to study why cancer cells are so metabolically flexible.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature27 Feb 2019 Nature Methods
Matrix mimics shape cell studies

The extracellular matrix governs a surprising number of cellular functions. New techniques are revealing how cells and matrix communicate — and why this cross-talk matters.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Technology Feature26 Feb 2019 Nature
The race for enzymatic DNA synthesis heats up

An alternative to chemical oligonucleotide synthesis inches closer to reality.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox25 Feb 2019 Nature
Cancer modeling thinks big with the pig

Large animal models can be important translational steps between basic research in rodents and clinical care in humans. Ever thought about a pig?
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature11 Feb 2019 Lab Animal
Bitcoin for the biological literature

Scientific publishing is increasingly adopting the technology underlying cryptocurrencies.
- Douglas Heaven
Toolbox4 Feb 2019 Nature
Technologies to watch in 2019

From higher-resolution imaging to genome-sized DNA molecules built from scratch, the year ahead looks exciting for life-science technology.
- Marissa Fessenden
Technology Feature23 Jan 2019 Nature
A rocky road for the maturation of embryo-editing methods

Editing the genome of human embryos is ethically fraught. But some projects show how diligent, ethical work can grow the gene-editing field.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature21 Jan 2019 Nature Methods
Toxicology testing steps towards computers

Can the computer eliminate the lab animal? As computational methods become more advanced and data more freely available, in silico modeling approaches have growing potential to help reduce the number of animals needed to test chemical toxicity.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature14 Jan 2019 Lab Animal
Five innovative ways to use 3D printing in the laboratory

As the cost of 3D printers tumbles, researchers have begun using them to make everything from bespoke equipment for experiments to realistic models of human organs.
- Andrew Silver
Toolbox2 Jan 2019 Nature
Controls let genomics experimenters drive with a dashboard

ERCC 2.0, spike-in controls and other metrics in genomics and metagenomics.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature20 Dec 2018 Nature Methods
Considering the cephalopod

Octopuses, squids, and cuttlefishes all have potential as lab animals. As models emerge, what goes in to keeping them happy and healthy in the lab?
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature12 Dec 2018 Lab Animal
The automatic-design tools that are changing synthetic biology

Computer-aided systems are helping researchers to create genetic circuits to order.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Toolbox10 Dec 2018 Nature
Transparent tissues bring cells into focus for microscopy

Techniques that render tissues as clear as glass and swell them to several times their original size are giving unprecedented access to the inner workings of biological systems.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature4 Dec 2018 Nature
Specialty probes give super-res imaging that special blink

Users of super-resolution imaging describe how they match probes to imaging modalities
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Nov 2018 Nature Methods
Tapping into the brain’s star power

No longer just ‘brain glue’, astrocytes are coming to the fore as a broadening toolset reveals the cells’ complexity and diversity.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature31 Oct 2018 Nature
Web service makes big data available to neuroscientists

NeuroData allows researchers to explore terabytes of brain images in multiple formats.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox30 Oct 2018 Nature
Why Jupyter is data scientists’ computational notebook of choice

An improved architecture and enthusiastic user base are driving uptake of the open-source web tool.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox30 Oct 2018 Nature
Neuroscience models: choose your dimension

New types of 2D and 3D brain models capture more physiology.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Oct 2018 Nature Methods
An inner light

In vivo bioluminescence imaging offers a non-invasive look inside the body. Its future looks bright.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature23 Oct 2018 Lab Animal
Supercharge your data wrangling with a graphics card

Graphics processing units aren’t just of interest to gamers and cryptocurrency miners. Increasingly, they’re being used to turbocharge academic research, too.
- David Matthews
Toolbox2 Oct 2018 Nature
Base editing a CRISPR way

A way to gene edit without double-stranded DNA breaks is now entering labs.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature1 Oct 2018 Nature Methods
Cryo-electron microscopy shapes up

As the imaging technique produces ever-sharper protein structures, researchers are racing to develop tools to assess how accurate they are.
- Monya Baker
Technology Feature25 Sep 2018 Nature
Machine learning gets to grips with plankton challenge

Marine biologists are using artificial intelligence to help them identify objects in millions of images.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox24 Sep 2018 Nature
Home sweet home cage

Why handle a mouse if your experiment can be done from the comfort of its home cage?
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature24 Sep 2018 Lab Animal
How AI technology can tame the scientific literature

As artificially intelligent tools for literature and data exploration evolve, developers seek to automate how hypotheses are generated and validated.
- Andy Extance
Toolbox10 Sep 2018 Nature
Profiling the dress codes of RNA-binding proteins

Methods choice is broad and labs are pushing protocols to address expansive biological questions.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 Aug 2018 Nature Methods
What is a lab animal?

Small but dedicated communities are bringing the earliest lineages of the animal kingdom into the lab. Take a look at the ctenophores, the sponges, and the placozoans.
- Ellen P. Neff
Technology Feature24 Aug 2018 Lab Animal
Software training in Antarctica

An oceanographer tells how she managed to host a programming workshop at a remote research station.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox20 Aug 2018 Nature
A toolkit for data transparency takes shape

A simple software toolset can help to ease the pain of reproducing computational analyses.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature20 Aug 2018 Nature
How to pick an electronic laboratory notebook

Choosing wisely from a burgeoning array of digital tools can help researchers to record experiments with ease.
- Roberta Kwok
Toolbox6 Aug 2018 Nature
Calling cell biologists to try cryo-ET

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) advances can ease the path to 3D renderings of cellular architecture.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 Jul 2018 Nature Methods
The hackers teaching old DNA sequencers new tricks

Outdated genome-sequencing machines need not die — researchers can repurpose them to drive next-generation biochemistry studies.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature24 Jul 2018 Nature
Advancing artificial animals

A human can’t easily infiltrate another species’ social group to examine and influence what makes the animals tick. But the right robot can open up a clever way in.
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature24 Jul 2018 Lab Animal
Speaking in code: how to program by voice

Some computer scientists turn to voice-command tools to avoid the pain of typing.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Toolbox3 Jul 2018 Nature
What makes birds and bats the talk of the town

Comparative methods are used to study vocalization in songbirds and bats.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature2 Jul 2018 Nature Methods
In the name of reproducibility

Adhering to mouse nomenclature guidelines ensures that research is discoverable, replicable, and less wasteful. So why don’t researchers do it?
- Smriti Mallapaty
Technology Feature25 Jun 2018 Lab Animal
Stem-cell culture moves to the third dimension

Human stem cells are yielding 3D miniature tissues that can be used to study both normal human biology and human disease in vitro.
- C. Y. Tachibana
Technology Feature11 Jun 2018 Nature
Map-making on a budget

Cut-price cartography tools are making light work of map-making.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox5 Jun 2018 Nature
Stem cells: lineage tracing lets single cells talk about their past

Multipotent stem cells can become a variety of cell types. A flurry of new approaches enable lineage tracing at single-cell resolution.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 May 2018 Nature Methods
DIY goes in vivo

When existing systems don’t get the job done, a growing community of researchers are customizing—and sharing—their own solutions.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature23 May 2018 Lab Animal
Single-cell approaches to immune profiling

Protein- and sequencing-based technologies are helping researchers to profile immune cells ever more deeply.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature22 May 2018 Nature
Virtual-reality applications give science a new dimension

Virtual- and augmented-reality tools allow researchers to view and share data as never before. But so far, they remain largely the tools of early adopters.
- David Matthews
Toolbox30 Apr 2018 Nature
Microbiology: making the best of PCR bias

Many factors can skew the results of a widely used amplification technique for microbiome analysis, but researchers are finding strategies for getting at the truth.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature27 Apr 2018 Nature Methods
Out of the cold

Warmer living conditions could make lab mice better models of human disease.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature23 Apr 2018 Lab Animal
Cancer research with a human touch

Advances in gene editing are allowing researchers to create mouse models that more closely mirror the disease in humans.
- Mike May
Technology Feature10 Apr 2018 Nature
Ecology’s remote-sensing revolution

Satellite data, and the tools that ecologists use to analyse them, are more accessible and plentiful than ever.
- Roberta Kwok
Toolbox3 Apr 2018 Nature
How to pull the blanket off dormant cancer cells

When asleep, cancer cells can evade chemo. When they wake up, they can cause cancer recurrence. By deciphering dormancy cues, labs explore how to break this cycle.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature3 Apr 2018 Nature Methods
Bat research takes wing
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature26 Mar 2018 Lab Animal
How atomic imaging is being pushed to its limit

Atomic force microscopy is revealing molecular structures with startling clarity. Artificial intelligence and automation could expand its potential.
- Andy Extance
Technology Feature20 Mar 2018 Nature
Putting microfluidics in other people's hands

In microfluidics, sharing is hard. But practitioners are exploring new ways to share designs, devices and experience.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Feb 2018 Nature Methods
The mazes with minds of their own

Automated ‘smart mazes’ free behavioural researchers from the tedium of monitoring animals. They also boost data quality and reproducibility.
- Charles Choi
Toolbox27 Feb 2018 Nature
Deep learning for biology

A popular artificial-intelligence method provides a powerful tool for surveying and classifying biological data. But for the uninitiated, the technology poses significant difficulties.
- Sarah Webb
Technology Feature20 Feb 2018 Nature
Modeling autism
- Alla Katsnelson
Technology Feature31 Jan 2018 Lab Animal
Data visualization tools drive interactivity and reproducibility in online publishing

New tools for building interactive figures and software make scientific data more accessible, and reproducible.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox30 Jan 2018 Nature
Meet some code-breakers of noncoding RNAs

The regulome—the part of the genome that regulates function—includes noncoding RNAs with varied functions yet to be deciphered.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Jan 2018 Nature Methods
Technology to watch in 2018

Thought leaders reveal the technologies and topics likely to transform life-science research in the year ahead.
- Kendall Powell
Technology Feature24 Jan 2018 Nature
The research hardware in your video-game system

Motion sensors don’t just drive gameplay. With the right software, they can scan dinosaur skulls, monitor glaciers and help robots to see.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Toolbox3 Jan 2018 Nature
Chemical biology: fats as research subjects

Fats add structure, they signal, they interact. In the lab, lipids are tough to work with but worth the challenge.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature3 Jan 2018 Nature Methods
An illuminating experience
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature29 Dec 2017 Lab Animal
A test drive of a DNA-analysis toolkit in the cloud

The Bioconductor project gathers genomics tools and data into a handy package that can run in the cloud.
- W. Wayt Gibbs
Toolbox5 Dec 2017 Nature
Microscopy: hello, adaptive optics

Aberrations hinder clear imaging, but an array of options help to correct much distortion.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature1 Dec 2017 Nature Methods
The microscope makers

A small community of scientists has taken a do-it-yourself approach to microscopy: when the right tool for the job doesn’t exist, make it.
- Brian Owens
Technology Feature28 Nov 2017 Nature
Need a paper? Get a plug-in

A collection of web-browser plug-ins is making the scholarly literature more discoverable.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Toolbox14 Nov 2017 Nature
Ultrasound for the brain

Ultrasonic energy can be harnessed to alter brain activity and treat disease — but first, scientists need to learn how it works.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature7 Nov 2017 Nature
Neurobiology: gene expression captured on-site

A wealth of spatial techniques capture the 'where' of gene expression.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 Oct 2017 Nature Methods
A walk on the wild side
- Dustin M. Graham
Technology Feature27 Oct 2017 Lab Animal
An ace in the hole for DNA sequencing

Offering long reads and rapidly improving accuracy, nanopore sequencing has the potential to upend the DNA sequencing market.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature12 Oct 2017 Nature
Collaborative software development made easy

Save time and protect critical code with 'continuous integration' services.
- Andrew Silver
Toolbox5 Oct 2017 Nature
Probes: FRET sensor design and optimization

Trial, error and the art of optimizing 'molecular rulers' that sense molecules or interactions.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Sep 2017 Nature Methods
Protein maps chart the causes of disease

Improvements in mapping protein–protein interactions are allowing researchers to deconstruct the delicate mechanics of cells.
- Marissa Fessenden
Technology Feature14 Sep 2017 Nature
Plot a course through the genome

Inspired by Google Maps, a suite of tools is allowing researchers to chart the complex conformations of chromosomes.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox7 Sep 2017 Nature
Structural biology: doors open at the European XFEL

X-ray beams at 27,000 pulses per second promise high-resolution views of macromolecules.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature1 Sep 2017 Nature Methods
Check your chemistry

Chemical probes and screening libraries can easily get mixed up or messed up, causing misleading results for unwary biologists.
- Monya Baker
Technology Feature24 Aug 2017 Nature
Cybersecurity for the travelling scientist

Virtual private networks, tracking apps and 'burner' laptops: how to protect sensitive data when you take your research on the road.
- Brian Owens
Toolbox3 Aug 2017 Nature
Genetics: new tales from ancient DNA

Coaxing ancient DNA to reveal its history delivers surprises and even improves ways of working with badly damaged present-day DNA.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature1 Aug 2017 Nature Methods
How to hack the genome

After tackling the genomes of bacteria and yeast, synthetic biologists are setting their sights on rewriting those of more complex organisms, including humans.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature27 Jul 2017 Nature
Single-cell sequencing made simple

Data from thousands of single cells can be tricky to analyse, but software advances are making it easier.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox6 Jul 2017 Nature
Metabolism: sweeter paths in glycoscience

Carbohydrates are tough molecules to study, but glycoscientists are developing and democratizing the needed tools.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Jun 2017 Nature Methods
The architecture of structured DNA

Researchers are exploiting the structural properties of DNA to build nanoscale models for use in medicine and materials science.
- XiaoZhi Lim
Technology Feature29 Jun 2017 Nature
Organoids: a better in vitro model

3D human cell cultures are changing the way scientists model organ development and function—but they have their own set of complications.
- Katherine Ellen Foley
Technology Feature30 May 2017 Nature Methods
Software simplified

Containerization technology takes the hassle out of setting up software and can boost the reproducibility of data-driven research.
- Andrew Silver
Toolbox1 Jun 2017 Nature
The making of a medical microchip

Microfluidic devices filled with intricate channels that exploit fluid behaviour promise to make it easier to diagnose genetic disease.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature25 May 2017 Nature
Pocket laboratories

Mobile phones are helping to take conventional laboratory-based science into the field, the classroom and the clinic.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Technology Feature4 May 2017 Nature
Disks back from the dead

Getting data off an ancient floppy disk or computer tape isn't easy, but it can be done with the help of clever software and hardware.
- Monya Baker
Toolbox4 May 2017 Nature
How to deduplicate PCR

PCR duplicates—sequencing reads from the same original genomic fragment—can cause headaches. But there are remedies.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature27 Apr 2017 Nature Methods
A measure of molecular muscle

Innovative tools are revealing the forces that guide cellular processes such as embryonic development and tumour growth.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature13 Apr 2017 Nature
The DIY electronics transforming research

Cheap, stripped-down microcontrollers are allowing users to pack huge amounts of computing power into tiny spaces.
- Daniel Cressey
Toolbox6 Apr 2017 Nature
Unpaywall finds free versions of paywalled papers

New tool joins a growing collection of software for accessing fee-for-view scientific literature.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Toolbox4 Apr 2017 Nature
Choosing CRISPR-based screens in cancer

Many possibilities for parsing cancer emerge when labs combine gene editing and screens. And RNAi retains its spot in the menu of options.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 Mar 2017 Nature Methods
Cancer: Imaging with antibodies

Innovative techniques are giving researchers unprecedented access to the inner workings of the immune system.
- Rosie Mestel
Technology Feature30 Mar 2017 Nature
How bioinformatics tools are bringing genetic analysis to the masses

Computational biologists are starting to develop user-friendly platforms for analysing and interpreting genetic-sequence data.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox2 Mar 2017 Nature
Cell biology: tracking a cell's cycle

The tools that clock a cell's everyday affairs reveal plenty that's out of the ordinary.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Feb 2017 Nature Methods
The RNA code comes into focus

As researchers open up to the reality of RNA modification, an expanded epitranscriptomics toolbox takes shape.
- Kelly Rae Chi
Technology Feature23 Feb 2017 Nature
Pursuing the simple life

Efforts to pare away cellular genomes are yielding streamlined biosynthetic factories and deeper insights into the core processes of biology.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature31 Jan 2017 Nature Methods
The Internet of Things comes to the lab

The system of connecting machines and sensors is finally making its way into the laboratory, giving researchers peace of mind and restoring their work–life balance.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox2 Feb 2017 Nature
Neuroscience: Big brain, big data

Neuroscientists are starting to share and integrate data — but shifting to a team approach isn't easy.
- Esther Landhuis
Technology Feature26 Jan 2017 Nature
How scientists use Slack

Eight ways labs benefit from the popular workplace messaging tool.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox5 Jan 2017 Nature
Epitranscriptomics: mixed messages
- Michael Eisenstein
News Feature29 Dec 2016 Nature Methods
Matchmaker, matchmaker, find me a grant

Recommendation engine Instrumentl aims to speed grant searching.
- Kendall Powell
Toolbox19 Dec 2016 Nature
Metabolomics: Small molecules, single cells

Sensitive mass spectrometry and innovative cell-sampling techniques allow researchers to profile metabolites in single cells, but the field is still in its infancy.
- Marissa Fessenden
Technology Feature30 Nov 2016 Nature
Microscopy: OpenSPIM 2.0

A maturing open hardware and open-source software movement seeks to expand DIY light-sheet microscopy.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Nov 2016 Nature Methods
Stat-checking software stirs up psychology

Researchers debate whether using a program to automatically detect inconsistencies in papers improves the literature, or raises false alarms.
- Monya Baker
Toolbox25 Nov 2016 Nature
The real-time technicolour living brain

Neurobiologists are coming up with innovative ways to get high-resolution pictures of the whole brain at work.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature9 Nov 2016 Nature
Mining the secrets of college syllabuses

The creators of the Open Syllabus Project hope that sharing data can both improve and reward teaching.
- Anna Nowogrodzki
Toolbox31 Oct 2016 Nature
Neurobiology: learning from marmosets

Many neuroscience labs are intrigued by these social, vocalizing primates.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 Oct 2016 Nature Methods
Democratic databases: science on GitHub

Scientists are turning to a software–development site to share data and code.
- Jeffrey Perkel
Toolbox3 Oct 2016 Nature
Genomics in 3D and 4D

DNA folding shapes gene expression. Emerging techniques promise to reveal the intricacies of this architectural language of chromosomes.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Sep 2016 Nature Methods
Reproducibility: Respect your cells!

Numerous variables can torpedo attempts to replicate cell experiments, from the batch of serum to the shape of growth plates. But there are ways to ensure reliability.
- Monya Baker
Technology Feature14 Sep 2016 Nature
Computers on the reef

Software tools that digitize and annotate underwater images are transforming marine ecology.
- Jeff Tollefson
Toolbox31 Aug 2016 Nature
Proteomics: taking on protein complexes
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Aug 2016 Nature Methods
The dark side of the human genome

Scientists are uncovering the hidden switches in our genome that dial gene expression up and down, but much work lies ahead to peel back the many layers of regulation.
- Kelly Rae Chi
Technology Feature17 Aug 2016 Nature
Let the structural symphony begin

Structural biologists are at last living the dream of visualizing macromolecules to uncover their function. But it means integrating different technologies, and that's no easy feat.
- Stephen Ornes
Technology Feature17 Aug 2016 Nature
‘Kudos’ promises to help scientists promote their papers to new audiences

Increasingly popular social-media tool says it can maximize reach and impact of research.
- Jeffrey Perkel
Toolbox1 Aug 2016 Nature
Stem cells: a dish of neurons

Labs can generate neurons from pluripotent stem cells to study basic biology and to model disease. Protocols are getting more robust, and labs add personal preferences.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Jul 2016 Nature Methods
Live fast, die young

Research into ageing requires patience, but a small cadre of scientists is angling to speed up answers by developing the flamboyant, short-lived turquoise killifish as a new model.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature20 Jul 2016 Nature
The visualizations transforming biology

Inventive graphic design and abstract models are helping researchers to make sense of a glut of data.
- Ewen Callaway
Toolbox4 Jul 2016 Nature
Plants: a tool box of cell-based assays

Cell-based assays are less routine for plant biologists than for researchers who work with animal or human cells, but that is changing.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Jun 2016 Nature Methods
A simpler twist of fate

Ways to directly convert one mature cell type into another may eventually offer a safer, faster strategy for regenerative medicine.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature15 Jun 2016 Nature
PCR: the price of infidelity

Infidelity is painful in life and in the lab. The former is better left to other publications; the latter is best not ignored, especially in the context of PCR-based DNA amplification.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 May 2016 Nature Methods
Digital forensics: from the crime lab to the library

Archivists are borrowing and adapting techniques used in criminal investigations to access data and files created in now-obsolete systems.
- Mark Wolverton
Toolbox30 May 2016 Nature
Illuminating life's building blocks

A suite of tools now enables scientists to see proteins at work in living cells at the single-molecule level.
- Marissa Fessenden
Technology Feature25 May 2016 Nature
The struggle with image glut

Experiments that generate millions of images have forced scientists to find new ways to store and share terabytes of experimental data.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox28 Apr 2016 Nature
Microbiology: the road to strain-level identification

Tools are emerging to help labs trawl for sequences that reveal microbial strains and their functional potential in deep pools of metagenomic data.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Apr 2016 Nature Methods
The tumour trail left in blood

Liquid biopsies can detect cancer signs from a blood sample, without the need for invasive procedures. But further work is needed before they can become reliable diagnostic tools.
- Kelly Rae Chi
Technology Feature13 Apr 2016 Nature
Robots record brain activity inside neurons

Neuroscientists hope to turn the delicate art of eavesdropping on brain cells into an automated technique.
- Helen Shen
Toolbox1 Apr 2016 Nature
Cancer: hunting rare somatic mutations

Emerging ways to lower the error rate when hunting low-frequency mutations.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Mar 2016 Nature Methods
Living factories of the future

Scientists are designing cells that can manufacture drugs, food and materials — and even act as diagnostic biosensors. But first they must agree on a set of engineering tools.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature16 Mar 2016 Nature
Web widget nudges scientists to share their data

Open Data Button launched to encourage public sharing of data sets.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Toolbox10 Mar 2016 Nature
The manuscript-editing marketplace

A peer-to-peer website aims to disrupt the author-services industry.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox1 Mar 2016 Nature
Web tool aims to reduce flaws in animal studies

‘Experimental Design Assistant’ helps to give feedback on research plans.
- Daniel Cressey
Toolbox29 Feb 2016 Nature
Optimizing probes to image cleared tissue

Probes and imaging finesse for a clearer view of tissue.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature25 Feb 2016 Nature Methods
DNA tags help the hunt for drugs

Drug discovery is a daunting process that requires chemists to sift through millions of chemicals to find a single hit. DNA technology can dramatically speed up the search.
- Asher Mullard
Technology Feature17 Feb 2016 Nature
Genetics: profiling DNA methylation and beyond

Both tried-and-true and new assays are helping labs to assess methylation at particular loci and from single cells.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Jan 2016 Nature Methods
Finding function in mystery transcripts

Little is known about the function of most long non-coding RNAs. But a suite of new tools might change that.
- Kelly Rae Chi
Technology Feature20 Jan 2016 Nature
Open journals that piggyback on arXiv gather momentum

Peer-review platforms built around online pre-print repositories spread to astrophysics.
- Elizabeth Gibney
Toolbox4 Jan 2016 Nature
The unsung heroes of scientific software

Creators of computer programs that underpin experiments don’t always get their due — so the website Depsy is trying to track the impact of research code.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Toolbox4 Jan 2016 Nature
Cell biology: delivering tough cargo into cells

New approaches expand the range and size of materials that can be inserted into a cell.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Dec 2015 Nature Methods
Micromanagement with light

The optogenetics techniques that have long been used in neuroscience are now giving biologists the power to probe cellular structures with unprecedented precision.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature9 Dec 2015 Nature
Annotating the scholarly web

Scientific publishers are forging links with an organization that wants scientists to scribble comments over online research papers.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox1 Dec 2015 Nature
Autophagy: eat thyself, sustain thyself

A growing research community studies autophagy—a process of cellular recycling and maintenance—but there are some hot-button methodological issues.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature1 Dec 2015 Nature Methods
Antibody anarchy: A call to order

Antibodies used in research often give murky results. Broader awareness and advanced technologies promise clarity.
- Monya Baker
Technology Feature25 Nov 2015 Nature
Eight ways to clean a digital library

Scientists have a surfeit of options to choose from in the competitive market of reference-management software.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox2 Nov 2015 Nature
Nanopores: a sequencer in your backpack

It's been a long wait for nanopore sequencing technology. Over 1,000 labs are testing the first commercial device and publishing results. Researchers tell Nature Methods about their experiences putting these early instruments through their paces. And more technology is in the works.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Oct 2015 Nature Methods
Super-resolve me: from micro to nano

Nanoscopes capable of super-resolution offer scientists intricate views of a world beyond the limits of conventional microscopes — but not every technique fits all imaging needs.
- Michael Eisenstein
Technology Feature14 Oct 2015 Nature
Connectomes make the map

Working at a variety of scales and with disparate organisms and technologies, researchers are mapping how parts of the brain connect.
- Amber Dance
Technology Feature30 Sep 2015 Nature
Voltage sensors: challenging, but with potential

Genetically encoded voltage sensors are coming of age, but their use still poses challenges that must be addressed from multiple angles.
- Nina Vogt
Technology Feature29 Sep 2015 Nature Methods
Digital badges aim to clear up politics of authorship

Machine-readable system seeks to clearly explain who did what for a research paper.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Toolbox28 Sep 2015 Nature
The cell menagerie: human immune profiling

Cutting-edge tools and analyses are digging deeper than ever before to unveil the intricacies of the diverse human immune system.
- Marissa Fessenden
Technology Feature16 Sep 2015 Nature
Leading mathematician launches arXiv 'overlay' journal

Journal that reviews papers from preprint server aims to return publishing to the hands of academics.
- Philip Ball
Toolbox15 Sep 2015 Nature
Motion studies: See how they run

Software tools that track how animals move are helping researchers to do everything from diagnosing neurological conditions to illuminating evolution.
- Boer Deng
Toolbox1 Sep 2015 Nature
Mapping proteins with spatial proteomics

A number of techniques address the location of proteins within cells.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 Aug 2015 Nature Methods
The DNA of a nation

The United Kingdom aims to sequence 100,000 human genomes by 2017. But screening them for disease-causing variants will require innovative software.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature26 Aug 2015 Nature
Lab-inventory management: Time to take stock

Inventory-tracking systems range from paper filing to custom-made databases. Using the right system can save researchers time, money and frustration.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox3 Aug 2015 Nature
Human phenotyping on a population scale

Large-scale phenotyping is generating much data that geneticists can harness. Amid the excitement about the possibilities, there are some points of caution.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Jul 2015 Nature Methods
Computers read the fossil record

Palaeontologists hope that software can construct fossil databases directly from research papers.
- Ewen Callaway
Toolbox30 Jun 2015 Nature
Metabolism: feeding fruit flies

Measuring how much a fruit fly eats opens the door to studies of metabolism and aging. But the assays are hotly debated.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Jun 2015 Nature Methods
Organs from the lab

The body's organs are more complex than any factory. Attempts to mirror their physiology in the laboratory are getting closer to capturing their intricacies.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature17 Jun 2015 Nature
How to catch a cloud

Why cloud computing is attracting scientists — and advice from experienced researchers on how to get started.
- Nadia Drake
Toolbox3 Jun 2015 Nature
Researchers argue for standard format to cite lab resources

Research Resource Identifier (RRID) aims to clean up poorly referenced data.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Toolbox29 May 2015 Nature
Visualizing epigenomic data
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 May 2015 Nature Methods
The trouble with reference rot

Computer scientists are trying to shore up broken links in the scholarly literature.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox4 May 2015 Nature
PCR heads into the field
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Apr 2015 Nature Methods
'Living figures' make their debut

Published chart integrates data from outside scientists.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
Toolbox22 Apr 2015 Nature
A most exceptional response

Sometimes a drug causes a tumour to completely recede, but only in a tiny percentage of people. Scientists want to decipher such outlier responses for the benefit of all patients.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature15 Apr 2015 Nature
Cancer: smoother journeys for molecular data

Data integration and tool interoperability can ease analyses of cancer 'omics data and yield surprises.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature31 Mar 2015 Nature Methods
Rate that journal

Consumer-oriented websites allow researchers to compare the merits of scientific journals and review their publishing experiences.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox30 Mar 2015 Nature
Data visualization: Science on the map

Easy-to-use mapping tools give researchers the power to create beautiful visualizations of geographic data.
- Mark Zastrow
Toolbox4 Mar 2015 Nature
Probes: paths to photostability

Blinking and photobleaching of fluorophores cause challenges in a whole range of imaging experiments. Here are some ways researchers are approaching fluorophore photostability.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature26 Feb 2015 Nature Methods
Measure for measure

Cutting-edge tools that can identify the characteristics of cells are helping researchers to develop more-effective vaccines.
- Jim Kling
Technology Feature18 Feb 2015 Nature
Programming: Pick up Python

A powerful programming language with huge community support.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox4 Feb 2015 Nature
Stem cells: disease models that show and tell
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature29 Jan 2015 Nature Methods
Biophysics: using sound to move cells

Moving and sorting cells with sound are a few of the possible applications for this no-contact technique.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature30 Dec 2014 Nature Methods
Programming tools: Adventures with R

A guide to the popular, free statistics and visualization software that gives scientists control of their own data analysis.
- Sylvia Tippmann
Toolbox29 Dec 2014 Nature
The automated lab

Start-up firms say robotics and software that autonomously record every detail of an experiment can transform the efficiency and reliability of research.
- Erika Check Hayden
Toolbox3 Dec 2014 Nature
A deep look at synaptic dynamics

The processes behind neuronal communication have not yet been resolved in detail, but dyes, microscopy and protein analysis are beginning to fill in the gaps.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature12 Nov 2014 Nature
Interactive notebooks: Sharing the code

The free IPython notebook makes data analysis easier to record, understand and reproduce.
- Helen Shen
Toolbox5 Nov 2014 Nature
Scientific writing: the online cooperative

Collaborative browser-based tools aim to change the way researchers write and publish their papers.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
Toolbox1 Oct 2014 Nature
When disease strikes from nowhere

When healthy parents have a child with a genetic disorder, the cause is sometimes a new mutation. Tools are emerging to meet the challenge of finding such changes.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature17 Sep 2014 Nature
How to tame the flood of literature

Recommendation services claim to help researchers keep up with the most important papers without becoming overwhelmed.
- Elizabeth Gibney
Toolbox3 Sep 2014 Nature
Stop the microbial chatter

Bacteria can coat everything from thermal springs to teeth. Researchers are looking for antibiotics that can subvert the signalling that the microbes use to carve their niche.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature23 Jul 2014 Nature
An atlas of expression

The first draft of the complete human proteome has been more than a decade in the making. In the process, the effort has also delivered lessons about technology and biology.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature28 May 2014 Nature
Sharp shooters

Beams of charged particles can treat cancer more safely and effectively than X-rays. Physicists and biomedical researchers are working to refine the technology for wider use.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature2 Apr 2014 Nature
Life in the danger zone

Instruments for studying microbes under biological containment cannot be readily removed from labs for servicing. A US facility is finding ways around that problem.
- Vivien Marx
Technology Feature15 Jan 2014 Nature