Commentary

The use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by both ill and healthy individuals raises ethical questions that should not be ignored, argue Barbara Sahakian and Sharon Morein-Zamir.

Global surveillance is key to tracking potential pandemic viruses such as H5N1. But we need to share samples more rapidly, increase testing in endemic areas and track more than one virus, argues Walter Boyce.

On-the-ground monitoring is unglamorous work, seldom rewarded by funding agencies or the science community. But we neglect it at our peril, warns Euan Nisbet.

50 years after the appointment of the first presidential science adviser, the White House is flooded with scientific information. Roger Pielke Jr suggests how the next administration might develop ways to use it best.

Is there an inherent conflict between public debate and free scientific inquiry? Patrick L. Taylor argues that earning public trust is essential to defending scientific freedoms.

The hopes for improving human health during ageing are largely based on studies with animal models. But Linda Partridge and David Gems ask if we are learning the right lessons from ageing research.

Climate policy after 2012, when the Kyoto treaty expires, needs a radical rethink. More of the same won't do, argue Gwyn Prins and Steve Rayner.

A personal DNA sequence is not yet practically useful. But it could be, argues Steven E. Brenner, if we had the right resources available to interpret genomes.

Economist and former science minister Boris G. Saltykov sees opportunity for change and innovation in Russia.

Funding woes plague US biomedical researchers. But calls for more funding ignore the structural problems that push universities to produce too many scientists, argues Brian C. Martinson.

Tropical forests in southeast Asia are under threat from oil-palm growers. This is an opportunity to combine sustainable economic growth with biodiversity conservation, argue Lian Pin Koh and David S. Wilcove.

It takes too long and costs too much to bring new drugs to market. So let's beef up efforts to screen existing drugs for new uses, argue Curtis R. Chong and David J. Sullivan Jr.

Things are heating up in the Amazon as the burning season begins. In Brazil, a 30-year-old study of forest fragments is itself threatened by farming, logging and hunting, say William Laurance and Regina Luizão.

If scientific culture in the Muslim world has changed since the golden era of Islamic science, so has the practice of Islam. Reintroducing knowledge and creativity requires a revival of both, argues Ziauddin Sardar.

Accepting quantum physics to be universally true, argues Max Tegmark, means that you should also believe in parallel universes.

As Gordon Brown becomes Britain's prime minister, Robert May highlights some critical challenges in the continuing support of science.

Proactive management of trade in endangered wildlife makes more sense than last-minute bans that can themselves increase trading activity, argue Philippe Rivalan and his co-authors.

European life-science infrastructure has been neglected for too long. The next generation of facilities needs better coordination and community support, argue Iain W. Mattaj and Glauco P. Tocchini-Valentini.

Locking carbon up in soil makes more sense than storing it in plants and trees that eventually decompose, argues Johannes Lehmann. Can this idea work on a large scale?

How can we best reduce the risk of severe adverse reactions to marketed drugs? An international group of scientists argues that a global research network is needed to identify genetically at-risk populations.