News & Views in 2003

Soft matter is often found in tight spots. A study shows that tangled chain-like molecules, squeezed between solid surfaces and stroked by sliding, might become exceptionally ordered.

Alerting the immune system to invading microorganisms is essential for effective immunity. Uric acid released by damaged cells is a danger signal that is able to notify immune cells of microbial attack.

There is often more than one way of cracking a scientific problem. Two views of one question have led to the marriage of two signalling proteins in search of a partner.

Molecular signals are not the only forces that pattern and shape the developing embryo. Mechanical stresses sensed by cells also seem to be involved in creating the body plan.

The perfection of a fly's eye and the chaotic nature of tumours provide eloquent examples of the need to coordinate cell death and proliferation. The intricacies of the underlying mechanism are now being uncovered.

Research on two Bolivian rivers provides explanations of how and when they flood. It also gives pointers for interpreting Earth's history as recorded by the sediments left behind by flood waters.

Many molecules exist in two mirror-image forms, which have different biological properties. A new way of creating solid chiral surfaces might make it easier to synthesize and purify only one of the mirror forms.

At synapses, nerve cells release neurotransmitters, which affect other nerve cells or muscles. Studies of how muscles in turn influence neurotransmitter release hint at how synapses adapt to changes in use.

The puzzle of how a drug that binds to a protein found in normal cells as well as cancer cells preferentially kills tumours is now solved — the target protein exists in a drug-binding complex in tumour cells.

Flooding reduces the ability of roots to absorb water. The molecular basis for this paradox involves the regulation of water-channel proteins by the pH inside root cells.

Looking inside the compartments of certain immune cells — professional antigen-presenting cells — has revealed how the immune system can trigger a cell-killing response to extracellular pathogens.

Magnetic-memory devices of the future could be based on 'spintronics', through switching the directions of electron spins. New work confirms the physics behind a spin-switching mechanism.

An Alfvén-wave maser, a feature of atmospheric and astrophysical science, has been created in a laboratory, and opens the way for further Earth-bound investigations of cosmic phenomena.

The industrial application of zeolites is limited by the cost of certain organic materials that are needed to make them, but which are destroyed in the process. A clever technique offers a solution.