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The Earth and our effects on it require monitoring and analysis worthy of their complexity and importance. Now is the time to bring global observation into the twenty-first century.
Obesity is the main target in the US government's latest dietary guidelines. But can this advice really make a difference? Nature's reporters sift through the heady mix of politics and science to get a taste of things to come.
Eating a healthy diet is hard work. There are hundreds of guides out there — often providing conflicting instructions. Deciding what advice to take means wrestling with a number of tough questions.
In the Northern Hemisphere, large-scale glaciation was initiated comparatively recently. Paradoxically, it seems that the trigger was a seasonal warming of the sea surface in an upwind oceanic region.
Mammals hear with exquisite sensitivity and precision over a huge range of frequencies; tiny amplifiers in the inner ear make this possible. New results challenge current thinking on how these amplifiers work.
Slow light research has been a fast-moving topic in recent years, with potential applications from quantum computing to telecommunications. Techniques are now emerging that can slow down light in optical fibres.
How does an immature cell know how to develop into a specialized one? A fortunate observation has revealed one of the cues that guide precursor immune cells to their ultimate fate.
The protoplanets that collided to make the Earth may themselves have had atmospheres and oceans. Venus has vastly more argon and neon than Earth: fossil evidence, perhaps, of protoplanetary atmospheres?
HIV has evolved to avoid neutralization by human antibodies. New atomic-level details reveal that such evasion involves substantial refolding of its exterior glycoprotein.
What's a company to do when it needs faster, cheaper new drugs and chemists are hard to find? Look for a source of bright graduates with low living costs, where legal changes have pushed firms to seek work, and you're there, says Emma Marris.
