Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Embryos have two distinct ends, which become apparent early on. Quite how this initial polarity is sustained in plant embryos has been unclear. Step forward the agent provocateur of plant development — auxin.
For years, a unicellular creature called Giardia has occupied a special place in biology because it was thought to lack mitochondria. But it does have them — though tiny, they pack a surprising anaerobic punch.
Copulating cockerels can, it seems, tailor their ejaculate to several factors: the degree of male competition, whether they have mated with the female before, and the female's reproductive 'value'.
Neurons in the brain release proteins called neurotrophins, which bind to glial cells and unleash a wave of calcium ions inside them. This could be the missing link in a communication circuit between glia and neurons.
Being eaten alive then dumped with the resulting droppings can be all to the good — if you are a palm fruit in the Amazonian tropical forest, that is, and the consumer is a large mammal.
As electronic devices shrink, the interaction between electrons and the silicon crystal lattice, described in terms of 'quasiparticles', is a central issue. Ultrashort laser pulses can track the birth of such a quasiparticle.
The two Voyager spacecraft are heading beyond the bounds of the Solar System, and Voyager 1 may now have encountered the 'edge' — the termination shock — of the solar wind. But not everyone agrees.
A large-scale effort to uncover the gene-expression profiles of individual neurons and create a demographic atlas of the brain is under way. First data from this project are revealing new information about neuronal development.
Elderly but healthy people are often seriously injured in falls. Exploiting the phenomenon of stochastic resonance, biological physicists have designed a shoe with a vibrating insole that helps maintain balance.
Why is the black hole at the centre of our Galaxy so dim, when those in other galaxies can outshine the stars around them? Newly discovered bursts of infrared radiation may give the first clues to what is going on.
