Biotechnology

• Biotech companies rush to patent plant genes

  Activists fear that blanket patents could stifle independent crop research.

  16 May 2008

• German universities bow to public pressure over GM crops

  Plug is pulled on maize research.

  14 May 2008

• Graphic special: Flights of green fancy

  Air travel shows no sign of losing its allure but its environmental impact is not going to go away. Katharine Sanderson looks at some of the ways that scientists and engineers hope to reduce the carbon wing-print of aircraft.

  14 May 2008

• Profile: Learning from death

  Vishva Dixit's study of cellular demise led to the discovery of a new molecular-signalling mechanism #20; one with implications for inflammation and perhaps much more, reports Melinda Wenner.

  14 May 2008

• Don't turn your nose up at mouse urine

  Urinary proteins are key to ultra-sensitive artificial noses.

  9 May 2008

• Doctors accused of doing illegal stem-cell trials

  Patients in Austria may have been misled.

  30 April 2008

• Food crisis spurs research spending

  Agricultural research comes in from the cold.

  30 April 2008

• Stem cells: The 3-billion-dollar question

  Can a state do what a country cannot, and transform the way stem-cell research is funded? Erika Check Hayden reports on the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

  30 April 2008

• Swiss 'dignity' law is threat to plant biology

  Government ethics-committee guidelines could halt techniques such as hybridization of roses.

  23 April 2008

• Biomedical science: Betting the bank

  Lyle Palmer has plans for a 'ludicrously ambitious' gene - disease research project. Bijal Trivedi reports on the trials at Joondalup.

  23 April 2008