History: Shut up and calculate!

Practical, interdisciplinary ways of working forged during the Second World War had a lasting impact on a generation of physicists and their findings, says David Kaiser.

8 January 2014

Renewable energy: Back the renewables boom

Low-carbon technologies are getting better and cheaper each year, but continued public-policy support is needed to sustain progress, says Jessika E. Trancik.

19 March 2014

Preclinical research: Make mouse studies work

More investment to characterize animal models can boost the ability of preclinical work to predict drug effects in humans, says Steve Perrin.

26 March 2014

Technology transfer: Industry-funded academic inventions boost innovation

Brian D. Wright and colleagues present data challenging the assumption that corporate-funded academic research is less accessible and useful to others.

19 March 2014

Environment: Accelerate research on land creation

China's campaign to bulldoze mountains to build cities needs expertise to avert geoengineering problems, warn Peiyue Li, Hui Qian and Jianhua Wu.

4 June 2014

Stem cells: Taking a stand against pseudoscience

Elena Cattaneo and Gilberto Corbellini are among the academics working to protect patients from questionable stem-cell therapies. Here, they share their experiences and opinions of the long, hard fight for evidence to prevail.

16 June 2014

Women in science: A temporary liberation

The First World War ushered women into laboratories and factories. In Britain, it may have won them the vote, argues Patricia Fara, but not the battle for equality.

2 July 2014

Medical research: Missing patients

Effective clinical studies must consider all ethnicities — exclusion can endanger populations, says Esteban G. Burchard.

16 September 2014

Chemistry: Chemical con artists foil drug discovery

Naivety about promiscuous, assay-duping molecules is polluting the literature and wasting resources, warn Jonathan Baell and Michael A. Walters.

24 September 2014

Resources: Curb vast water use in central Asia

Irrigation-intensive industries in former Soviet republics have sucked water bodies dry. Olli Varis calls for economic reform to ease environmental and social tensions.

1 October 2014