Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
A painstaking triple-gene-knockout study has revealed a crucial role for insulin receptors in male sexual development. But is multiple-gene targeting the way forward for analysing genome function in mammals?
Studies in flies and mice have revealed a surprising way in which cells regulate gene activity, with consequences for our understanding of organ formation during development.
Statistical validation of a relationship between explosive volcanic eruptions and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation is a step forward in understanding the effects of such eruptions on climate.
The dodo is most certainly dead. But when did the species finally disappear? A statistical approach allows estimation of the date, and could be applied to other extinctions, both past and present.
A jet-like flow of material, detected in the vicinity of a dying star, supports a model in which such jets shape the gas cloud around the star into a bipolar nebula. The jet probably comes from an unseen companion star.
How do things break? The fracture of materials is part of our everyday experience, and yet the process is not well understood. A study of crack propagation at microscopic scales shows the devil in the details.
The versatility of the branched macromolecules known as dendrimers is being exploited in various ways — explosively so, in the context of their application as potential drug-delivery systems.
The electrical properties of silver chalcogenides are unusually affected by magnetic fields. A simulation suggests how this might arise from tiny imperfections and could facilitate the design of new materials.
Embryos have two distinct ends, which become apparent early on. Quite how this initial polarity is sustained in plant embryos has been unclear. Step forward the agent provocateur of plant development — auxin.
For years, a unicellular creature called Giardia has occupied a special place in biology because it was thought to lack mitochondria. But it does have them — though tiny, they pack a surprising anaerobic punch.
Copulating cockerels can, it seems, tailor their ejaculate to several factors: the degree of male competition, whether they have mated with the female before, and the female's reproductive 'value'.
Neurons in the brain release proteins called neurotrophins, which bind to glial cells and unleash a wave of calcium ions inside them. This could be the missing link in a communication circuit between glia and neurons.
Being eaten alive then dumped with the resulting droppings can be all to the good — if you are a palm fruit in the Amazonian tropical forest, that is, and the consumer is a large mammal.
