Articles in 2007

Weak dollar threatens to undermine involvement in foreign projects.

More than half a century's work on superconductivity theories.

Many formulations of the scientific method begin with observations. And the images here are indeed exciting observations — new pictures from Earth and space that will serve as the starting points for great science. But often the most arresting scientific images are captured at the end of the process, in the form of a solution. Such pictures represent the culmination of months of tireless work in the laboratory and have a still, completed quality. The structure of a protein or material, the high-resolution image revealing microscopic handiwork, the elegant visualization of data. Whether from the start or the end of an investigation — or from somewhere in between — these images are some of the most striking from 2007.

British physics faces an unnecessary squeeze.

What physicists want for Christmas is a solution to the philosophical conundrums of quantum mechanics. They will be disappointed, but work that dissolves one aspect of quantum weirdness is some consolation.

Scope for improvement.

Nature's manuscript editors made a selection of 'favourites' from the papers we published in 2007.

We share many behavioural traits with our primate relatives — some disquietingly nasty.

Static crystal structures provide only clues about the way large biological molecules work. A recently developed spectroscopic technique also reveals details of their molecular motion, as shown for an RNA molecule from HIV.

Detecting cancer early and monitoring its progress non-invasively are high on oncologists' agenda. So the design of a neat device that detects and counts cancer cells shed into the blood by tumours is a welcome advance.

To measure an optical frequency, you are best off using an optical frequency comb. A radical approach shakes up how these combs are produced, and will permit their closer integration into optical-fibre technology.

The latest study of fluorescence in nanowires shows that it can be controlled by electric fields. This finding suggests the presence of mobile charge carriers, which could be useful for designing nanoelectronic devices.