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The main transport vehicles inside cells are spherical vesicles that form when patches of membrane curve into buds and then pinch off. 'Coat' proteins both control, and are controlled by, this membrane curvature.
In fewer than three dimensions, the behaviour of electrons in metals should change to that of a 'Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid'. A photoemission study of one-dimensional carbon nanotubes supports this prediction.
It's sometimes difficult to observe combustion in situ — inside, say, a porous material or an industrial reactor. But with the help of nuclear magnetic resonance, a new vista has opened up.
Generation of a particular 'fusion' protein is characteristic of one type of leukaemia. But is it in fact the cleavage of this protein into smaller parts that is important? Provocative new findings suggest that it is.
For some 40 million years, the Afro-Arabian landmass existed in splendid isolation. A newly described fossil fauna from the end of that time provides a window on the evolution of the continent's large mammals.
In the developing sense organs of fruitflies, cells must signal instructions over long distances. But the signalling molecule is bound to the cell membrane, so how can it reach its targets? The answer, it seems, is by touch.
The discovery of two neutron stars tightly orbiting each other suggests that the rate of neutron-star mergers in the Universe is higher than had been thought — which is good news for seekers of gravitational waves.
The structure of the last of the major pigment-containing protein complexes involved in photosynthesis is now revealed. The details complete our picture of electron shuttling in this vital process.
In response to a transient hormonal cue, a developing egg commits irreversibly to a mature state. Surprisingly, this irreversible switch is composed of intrinsically reversible components.
The speed at which mid-ocean ridges grind out new ocean floor varies considerably. The slowest-spreading ridges are especially tough to study — but the latest data show that they are especially intriguing.
The small icy bodies that make up the Kuiper belt are the most distant objects known in the Solar System. A consistent picture is now emerging which suggests that these objects formed much closer to the Sun.
The genome of the microscopic worm Caenorhabditis briggsae has been sequenced, and shows some remarkable differences from the genome of the better known — and physically similar — C. elegans.
Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest and most distant explosions in the Universe. A convincing body of evidence now links these bursts to supernovae, but there is still more to learn about their origins.
The dating of ancient languages by a technique called glottochronology is undergoing a revival, stimulated by the computational and statistical methods used to tease out evolutionary relationships in biology.
Large-scale field trials have been under way to assess how effective badger culls are in stemming the incidence of tuberculosis in cattle. One culling tactic, it seems, increases occurrence of the disease.
