Reviews & Analysis

Chalcogenide materials form the basis of CD and DVD technologies. But an identity crisis looms in the wider field: what role do atomic reconfiguration, electronic processes and ionic movement play in these materials?

Many proteins are carried within cells in bubble-like sacs. These are pinched off from membranes inside the cell, and it seems that the Sar1p protein is key in both starting and finishing this budding process.

The first edition of a massive catalogue of human genetic variation is now complete. The long-term task is to translate these data into an understanding of the effects of that variation on human health.

An investigation of brain development in sea spiders provides hints about how the earliest arthropod head evolved. These observations are bound to provoke controversy in an already acrimonious field.

Matter-wave interferometers are unique tools for exposing particles acting like waves — one of the stranger facets of quantum theory. They can even measure the quickening of an atom's ‘pulse’ as it flies past a surface.

Cells have many ways of coping with damage to their DNA, but how are these all coordinated? It seems that BID — a regulator of programmed cell death — stands at the crossroads of several damage-response pathways.

Black holes cannot yet be seen directly, but their influence on surrounding stars is allowing them to be identified with increasing certainty. That those stars are there to be influenced, though, raises other questions.

DNA can shape itself into many forms to achieve its purposes in life. The crystal structure of the junction between two of its forms provides insight into how DNA might accomplish some of these acrobatics.

A comparison of two fruitfly genomes shows that much of their non-coding DNA is controlled by either negative or positive selection, dealing a double blow to the neutral theory of molecular evolution.

The chemical industry would be transformed if selective oxidation of hydrocarbons could be achieved efficiently using cheap and clean oxygen from the air. Doing that with gold as a catalyst is a method gaining in allure.

How does fertilization cause animal eggs to begin embryonic development? Following entry of the sperm, the ingeniously regulated degradation of a protein seems to kick-start the stalled cell cycle.

The age of a tree and its size tend to increase together. Disentangling the effects of these two factors on tree vitality is no easy task, but further evidence adds to the view that it is size that matters.