News & Views in 2005

Adaptation by natural selection is the centrepiece of biology. Yet evolutionary biologists may be deluding themselves if they think they have a good handle on the typical strength of selection in nature.

When interplanetary shock waves hit the Cassini spacecraft and then Saturn in January 2004, it presented a unique opportunity to study the planet's magnetosphere and to compare it with that of Earth.

A lack of blood flow can kill nerve cells, by causing a massive influx of calcium ions. But what's happened to the cellular mechanisms for coping with excess calcium?

The discovery of light-sensitive neurons that can adjust our body clocks prompted a search for their light-detecting molecule. We now know the identity of this pigment — and that these cells do more than was thought.

Researchers are getting better at making silicon do what it really does not like to do — emit light. A silicon laser is now demonstrated that has promising features for future practical applications.

Gene transfer from bacteria to plants was thought to be limited to the bacterial genus Agrobacterium. But other bacterial groups also contain species capable of interkingdom genetic exchange.

The heart was thought to lack the capacity to regenerate after injury. But the identification of cells that can divide and mature into heart muscle suggests that the heart has repair mechanisms after all.

It's a tough job to excavate trustworthy records about past temperatures from the palaeoclimate archives. The application of a fresh approach, in the form of wavelet analysis of the data, is a step forward.

Breast cancers arise when the BRCA2 protein is defective, but what does the normal enzyme do? Studies of a relative of BRCA2 reveal a capacity to initiate the repair of broken DNA by loading a repair protein.

What were European forests like following the last ice age and before the advent of agriculture? The pollen record in Ireland provides a unique perspective from which to examine ideas on the question.

The synthetic assembly of the active centre of hydrogen-producing enzymes adds to our understanding of their structure and function — and could produce new and useful materials that mimic these enzymes.

Astronomers are going to extraordinary lengths in the quest to tot up the ‘ordinary’ matter in the Universe. The latest initiative has probed hot gas in intergalactic space by means of an X-ray lighthouse.

How can different species evolve different physical features despite using similar molecular toolkits? Studies of wing colour development in fruitflies point to specific changes in a gene's regulatory region.

There is growing evidence that the usual approach to modelling chemical events at surfaces is incomplete — an important concern in studies of the many catalytic processes that involve surface reactions.