Reviews & Analysis

In the brains of anaesthetized animals, neurons create spontaneous patterns of activity that resemble representations of visual stimuli. This finding may change our notions about visual perception.

Why did ancient flying reptiles have so much processing-power in the back of their brain? To provide highly responsive flight control, is an answer to emerge from an innovative analysis of pterosaur skulls.

Hepatitis C virus causes severe liver disease. Initial trials of a newly developed agent that prevents the virus reproducing itself look promising. But what are the future prospects for this treatment?

The microenvironment, or niche, in which stem cells reside controls their renewal and maturation. The niche that regulates blood-forming stem cells in adult animals has eluded researchers — until now.

Recovering the true evolutionary history of any group of organisms has seemed impossible. The availability of large amounts of genomic data promises an era in which the uncertainties are better constrained.

Warm-blooded animals of the same species, living in different climates, have different metabolic rates. In birds, this variation is not only due to physiological adaptation — it is inherent in the animals' genes.

The finished sequence of human chromosome 6 reveals an abundance of biological information previously buried within the draft of the human genome, and illustrates the increasing power of comparative genomics.

The genetics of development can often explain the genesis of cancer. This now seems to be true for cancers of the gut, but the patterns of gene expression in these tumours tell a tale with a twist.

Astronomers crave a detector sensitive enough to detect a single photon and determine its energy. A new single-pixel device can do this, and could also be built up into a large array suitable for a telescope.

The outermost layers of the Sun are hotter than expected. Observation and analysis now confirm that magnetic fields are involved in the heating process, and also signal the existence of a long-sought 'current sheet'.

A frog that lives in the mountains of southern India is a rare breed indeed: it is a new species that merits the establishment of a new family. Moreover, this is a discovery with considerable biogeographical significance.

Why have some evolutionary lineages produced many more species than others? As far as one large group of birds is concerned, being in the right place at the right time is a plausible answer.

Prion proteins that trigger a cascade of protein misfolding in the brain are suspected of being the sole transmissible cause of some brain-destroying diseases. But nucleic acids could be their partner in crime.