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Sending people into space for science is questionable and expensive. But a new proposed location for space telescopes, and the inevitable maintenance missions they will require, could provide a boost for the astronaut programme.
Commercial fisheries worldwide are being driven to collapse. Quirin Schiermeier wonders why fisheries scientists are failing to halt this pillage, and asks what hope is there for the future sustainability of fish stocks.
The Milky Way, like other galaxies, is thought to harbour a black hole at its centre. The remarkable observation of a star in close orbit around the Galactic Centre is the first firm evidence that this is so.
Certain bacteria generate highly toxic intermediates as part of their metabolism. Membranes with an unprecedented lipid composition and structure apparently meet the need for containment.
In game theory, 'loners' who choose not to participate in fact promote cooperation between players. The dynamics of the game show phase transitions and complex phenomena reminiscent of statistical physics.
Tumours have ways of evading the body's immune system. A surprising example involves a mechanism that at first sight would seem to have the opposite effect and improve immune responsiveness.
Take a spherical carbon 'buckyball', feather it with rod-like molecules, and the result is a distinctive shuttlecock shape that can easily be stacked into columns. Liquid-crystal phases thus formed should have unusual properties.
Sodium-ion channels usually open in response to a voltage change across the membrane in which they sit. But, surprisingly, a growth factor secreted by neurons also rapidly triggers the opening of a specific sodium channel.
